A STUDY ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND
WORK LIFE BALANCE OF EMPLOYEES IN THE
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY IN
BANGALORE, INDIA
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Philosophy
By
Deepak D Rangreji
0930002
Supervisor
Dr. Harold Andrew Patrick
Coordinator OB & HRM - Institute of Management
Institute of Management
CHRIST UNIVERSITY, BANGALORE
2010
Approval of Dissertation
This Dissertation entitled, “A Study of Emotional Intelligence and Work Life Balance of
Employees in the Information Technology Industry in Bangalore, India”, by Deepak D
Rangreji (0930002) is approved for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Management.
Examiners:
1. ………………………………….. ……………………………………
2. ………………………………… …………………………………….
3. ………………………………… …………………………………….
Chairman: ………………………………
(Seal)Date: Place:
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DECLARATION
I Deepak D Rangreji (0930002) hereby declare that the dissertation entitled, “A Study
of Emotional Intelligence and Work Life Balance of Employees in the Information
Technology Industry in Bangalore, India”, submitted to Christ University, in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Master of Philosophy in
Management is a record of original and independent research work done by me during
2009 – 2010 under the supervision and guidance of Dr. Harold Andrew Patrick,
Institute of Management and it has not formed the basis for the award of any Degree /
Diploma / Associate ship / Fellowship or other similar title to any candidate of any
University.
Date: 30/10/2010 Signature of the Candidate
Place: Bangalore
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CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the dissertation, entitled, “A Study of Emotional Intelligence and Work
Life Balance of Employees in the Information Technology Industry in Bangalore, India”,
submitted to Christ University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the
Degree of Master of Philosophy, in Management is a record of original research work done by
Mr. Deepak D Rangreji (0930002) during the period 2009 – 2010 of his study in the Institute of
Management at Christ University, Bangalore, under my supervision and guidance and the
dissertation has not formed the basis for the award of any Degree / Diploma/ Associate ship /
Fellowship or similar title to any candidate of any University.
Date: 30/10/2010 Signature of the GuidePlace: Bangalore Dr. Harold Andrew Patrick
Coordinator – OB & HRM Institute of Management, Christ University
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Acknowledgement
The power of faith and love is what sustained me throughout this study, and I am deeply
appreciative for all those who were a part of this challenging and exciting journey, directly and
indirectly. I acknowledge the presence of the Almighty whom I trust and repose my faith in for
his blessing direction and guidance.
First, a big thanks to Dr. Harold Andrew Patrick, Professor Human Resource Management and
Organizational Behaviour, Christ University, my guide and supervisor, he has been very kind and
warm as a person. My refreshing encounters and experience with him is noteworthy. His wisdom,
knowledge and commitment to the highest standards inspired motivated and encouraged me to
accomplish this study.
My parents for giving me education and supporting me in all my endeavours; also my larger
family for their encouragement and goodwill.
I am deeply thankful to Prof. Mihir Dash, Alliance Business Academy who brilliantly and
patiently deciphered my data and made an excellent analysis out of it.
I would like to remember and thank Jasmine Sonia for all her support and guidance throughout
the course. She has been very cooperative and patient in answering and solving all my questions.
I remain grateful to all the IT employees of various information technology organizations who
spared their valuable time in filling up the questionnaire. Thanks to my extended family members
and friends for their help with data collection.
Finally, I am sincerely obliged to all those who have helped me directly and indirectly in the
completion of this study.
Deepak D Rangreji
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ABSTRACT
Emotional Intelligence is a set of qualities and competencies that captures a broad collection of
individual skills and dispositions, usually referred to as soft skills or inter and intra-personal
skills, that are outside the traditional areas of specific knowledge, general intelligence, and
technical or professional skills. Emotions are an intrinsic part of our biological makeup, and
every morning they march into the office with us and influence our behavior. Emotional
intelligence consists of five factors: Knowing one's emotions, managing emotions, motivating
oneself, recognizing emotions in others, and handling relationships Goleman (1995). Researchers
today are interested in finding the effects of emotional intelligence on employees and thereby,
organizations, and analyzing the various other facets of EQ. Emotional intelligence improves
individual and organizational performance. It plays a significant role in the kind of work an
employee produces, and the relationship he or she enjoys in the organization.
Work – Life Balance is a challenging issue for IT leaders, managers and has also attracted the
attention of researchers. Work/life balance, in its broadest sense, is defined as a satisfactory level
of involvement or ‘fit’ between the multiple roles in a person’s life. In this climate managing the
boundary between home and work is becoming more challenging. Organizations need to ensure
they not just encourage but mandate a practical and workable work/life balance policy, benefiting
and meeting the needs of both the organization and its employees. Organizations not providing
real opportunity for employees work/life balance are opening themselves up to increasing
numbers of dissatisfied and unproductive employees and hence increased attrition rates. Merely
creating a work/life policy framework is not enough; fostering an organizational culture that
supports the use of available policies is also of great importance. Further there is a need for
employers and employees alike to find flexible and innovative solutions that maximize
productivity without damaging employees well – being, their family relationships and other
aspects of life.
This study is an attempt to contribute afresh with a new perspective to the field of human
resources and behavioural sciences with special reference to emotional intelligence in relation of
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employees work – life balance in IT organizations. It is also an earnest attempt to bridge the gap
especially in this area by highlighting the relevance and importance of work – life balance and
emotional intelligence to leadership, senior management, individual and organizations and
hoping this study will initiate a series of serious and productive discussion on the subject.
The findings and outcome of this research will be beneficial to the IT organizations in India,
which is a flourishing industry and contributes significantly to the GDP of the country and the
talent pool of the world. The study will bring in sharp focus the major challenges encountered in
these areas and the solutions that will aid IT organizations to deal more significantly in
increasingly their effectiveness.
The review on the related literature in the area of emotional intelligence and work – life balance
studied in this research has provided the researcher an insight into many factors. It also provides
direction in designing the present study. Having reviewed several studies and having identified
the gap, the investigator felt an imperative need to undertake the present investigation.
The sample consisted of 355 IT employees from Bangalore city. The sample consisted both male
and female IT employees. Judgmental sampling technique was adopted to select the number of
respondents across the three types of management level.
Five tools were used to collect the data Work interferes with personal life Work interferes with
personal life scale was developed by Fisher-McAuley, Stanton, Jolton and Gavin (2003), Factors
impacting work – life balance scale was developed by the investigator, Work related factors that
interferes with personal life scale was developed by Bolino and Turnley (2005), Level of risk
inherent in each program, on an employees career, scale and Likelihood of usage of work – life
balance programs scale developed Catherine C Parker (2007). Emotional Intelligence
questionnaire has four dimensions and is developed by Wong Chi Sum (2007)
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The major findings of the study were:
1. The three major behaviours of work that interferes with personal life were unhappiness
with the amount of time for non – work activities followed by missing personal activities
due to work and putting personal life on hold because of work.
2. The two major factors impacting work – life balance of IT employees are felling
exhausted at the end of days work and quitting their jobs or taking a career break because
of work – life balance issues.
3. The major work related factor interfering with personal life were, carrying cell phone or a
pager so that the employees can be reached after normal business hours and checking e-
mail or voice mail at home after returning from work.
4. The highest difference was noticed in Work from home all the time, followed by part time
work. The least difference was found in paid leave of absence for education and paid
paternity leave. In case of paid maternity leave the prevalence of it was found to be higher
than the awareness of the work – life balance programs.
5. Usage of work – life balance programs like part time, work from home all the time, career
breaks and brief paid sabbatical of 1 – 2 months had higher level of risk involved to an IT
employee’s position. Where as flexible work schedules, paid paternity leave, work from
home occasionally and paid maternity leave had less risk involved to an IT employee’s
position.
6. IT employees were more likely to use work – life balance programs like flexible work
schedules followed by work from home occasionally, paid leave for sick family member
i.e. (parent, child, spouse) and paid paternity leave. Where they were less likely to use
programs like, work from home all the time, career breaks, part-time work and paid
maternity leave.
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7. It was found that IT employees were high on regulation of emotion in the self, followed
by appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate
performance and appraisal and expression of emotion in the self.
8. It was found that Level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life
balance programs has a strong correlation with Appraisal and expression of emotion in
self, Use of emotions to facilitate performance and Appraisal and recognition of emotion
in others. The relationship between emotional intelligence’s influence on work – life
balance dimensions was significant however the influence was weak. Appraisal and
expression of emotions in self, and Use of emotions to facilitate performance influenced
maximum on work - life dimensions. Among the work - life dimensions risk in position
with usage of work-life balance programs was maximally influenced by emotional
intelligence.
9. Use of emotions to facilitate performance negatively influenced factors impacting work –
life balance.
10. Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others had a significant influence on work related
factors interfering with personal life.
11. Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self negatively influenced level of risk to an
employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance programs. Regulation of emotion
in the self positively influenced level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of
work-life balance programs.
12. Significant differences were found between gender and work interference with personal
life, work related factors interfering with personal life and level of risk to an employee’s
position with the usage of work-life balance programs. All the three variables were higher
for men as compared to women.
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13. Significant differences were found between age and work related factors interfering with
personal life. Work related factors interfering with personal life were highest for the 35 –
45 years age group, followed by the 45 – 55 years age group and was lowest for
employees above 55 years.
14. Significant differences were found between martial status and work related factors
interfering with personal life and likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs.
Work related factors interfering with personal life were higher for married IT
professionals as compared to single or unmarried IT professionals. Further married IT
professionals were more likely to use work - life balance programs as compared to single
or unmarried IT professionals.
15. Significant differences were found between management level and work interference with
personal life, factors impacting work – life balance and work related factors interfering
with personal life. Work interference with personal life was highest for IT professionals at
the middle management level and lowest for junior level management. Factors impacting
work – life balance was highest for both junior and middle management IT professionals
and lowest for senior management IT professionals. Finally work related factors
interfering with personal life were highest for senior management IT professionals and
lowest for junior level management IT professionals.
16. Significant differences were found between years in present position and work
interference with personal life, work related factors interfering with personal life and
likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs. Work interference with personal life
and Work related factors interfering with personal life were highest for IT professionals
who were in the same position for six and more years. IT professionals who were in the
same position for about four years were more likely to use work-life balance programs.
17. Significant differences were found between overall experience and work interference with
personal life and work related factors interfering with personal life. Both the variables
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were highest for IT professionals with 10 – 20 years of overall experience and lowest for
IT professional 2 – 5 of overall experience.
IMPLICATIONS
1. Ensure that formal policies in place are consistent with what employees actually
experience. Policy provision alone is not sufficient to ensure employees’ work/life
balance. Human resource department should look at the uptake rates of policies across
different areas in the organisation because this may provide clues to the existence of
unsupportive cultures.
2. Adopt a ‘give and take’ philosophy. Both employer and employee need to be willing to
bend a little.
3. There should be a clear boundary drawn between work and non – work activities. Human
Resources and the Senior Management should take the initiative and communicate the
importance of having a good balance between personal and professional life. The
widespread perception that visibility = productivity should be changed. Focus on
effectiveness rather than on length of work hours. Use communication technologies and
skilful time-management strategies to boost output.
CONCLUSION
IT organizations should come up with effective and efficient work – life balance policies and
programs and foster an organizational culture that supports the use of available policies is also of
great importance. This will help reduce the work – life conflict for IT employees. Further IT
leaders should take initiative to improve the emotional intelligence competencies of their
employees as it plays a significant role in the kind of work an employee produces, and the
relationship he or she enjoys in the organization and improve individual and organizational
performance.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dissertation Approval for MPhil
Declaration
Certificate
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of Contents
List of Tables
List of Figures
Chapter Numbers
Particulars Page Numbers
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 19 – 54 1.1 Introduction To Information Technology Industry in India 19
1.1.2 IT Outsourcing In India & India's Domestic IT Market 21 1.1.3 Government Initiative In India's Domestic IT Market & Major
Investments In India's Domestic IT Market21
1.1.4 SWOT Analysis of IT & ITES Industry 221.1.5 Future of Indian IT Industry 231.1.6 Emerging Trends in the IT Industry 231.2 Work – Life Balance 2412.1 Definition of Work – Life Balance 251.2.2 A Conceptual Paradigm of Work – Life Balance 261.2.3 Factors Influencing Work – Life Balance 301.2.4 Organizational Policies And Practices That Facilitate Work –
Life Balance34
1.2.5 Work – Life Balance - An Imperative For Business 34 1.2.6 The Gap Between Work – Life Balance Policy And Practice 361.3 Introduction To Emotional Intelligence 38
1.3.1 Background 401.3.2 Emotional Intelligence – Concept & Definition 401.3.3 Why Study Emotional Intelligence 411.3.4 Models of Emotional Intelligence 421.3.5 Goleman: A Mixed Model of Emotional Intelligence 441.3.6 Emotional Intelligence At Workplace -Leadership Dimensions 45
12
1.3.7 Emotionally Intelligent Leader - A Model 461.3.8 Emotional Intelligence & Leadership Competencies 471.3.9 Emotional Intelligence – Group and Organizational
Effectiveness49
1.3.10 A Model Of Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Effectiveness
49
1.3.11 Group Emotional Intelligence (GEI) 491.3.12 Dimensions of GEI 51
1.4 Need and Rationale of The Study 521.5 Objectives of The Study 541.6 Chapterization 54
CHAPTER II - REVIEW OF LITERATURE 55 – 77 2.1 Trends of Research on Work – Life Balance 552.2 Studies on Work – Life Balance 562.3 Trends of Research on Emotional Intelligence 632.4 Studies on Emotional Intelligence 652.5 Overview 76
CHAPTER III - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 78 – 90 3.1 Operational Definitions of the Variables Under Investigation 783.2 Statement of the Problem 803.3 Variables Under Investigation 813.4 Hypotheses 813.5 Sample Size 823.6 Sample Profile 823.7 Sampling Technique 853.8 Tools Adopted For Data Collection 853.9 Description of The Tools 863.10 Scoring Procedure 883.11 Pilot Study and Try Out 893.12 Administration of the Questionnaire 893.13 Statistical Techniques and Analysis 903.14 Conclusion 90
CHAPTER IV - DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
91 – 118
4.1 Introduction 914.2 Descriptive Statistics 924.3 Testing Hypothesis (H1) Between Demographics Using ANOVA 994.4 Testing Hypothesis (H2) Between Demographics Using
ANOVA106
13
4.5 Stepwise Regression Analysis 1104.6 Correlation Analysis 115
CHAPTER – V - SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 119 – 131 5.1 Introduction 1195.2 Need For The Study 1195.3 Statement of The Problem 1205.4 Objectives of The Study 1205.5 Review of Related Literature 1215.6 Variables of The Study 1215.7 Hypotheses of The Study 1215.8 Tools Adopted For The Study 1215.9 Sampling Design 1225.10 Statistical Techniques Adopted 1225.11 Major Findings of The Study 1225.12 Implications 1305.13 Limitations of The Study 1345.14 Suggestions For Further Research 1345.15 Conclusion 135
BIBLIOGRAPHY 136APPENDIX A – PROFORMAAPPENDIX B – Work – Life Balance QuestionnaireAPPENDIX C - Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire
LIST OF TABLES
Table Particulars Page
14
Number NumberTable 3.1 Indicating the gender of the respondents in percentage 82Table 3.2 Indicating the age of the respondents in percentage 82Table 3.3 Indicating the educational qualification of the respondents in
percentage83
Table 3.4 Indicating the marital status of the respondents in percentage 83Table 3.5 Indicating the level of management from where respondents
were drawn from in percentage83
Table 3.6 Indicating the number of years respondents have worked in the present position in percentage
84
Table 3.7 Indicating the total years of work experience of the respondents in percentage
84
Table 3.8 Indicating the size of the organization from where the responses were drawn in percentage
85
Table 3.9 Indicating Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability For The Tools Adopted on The Present Sample
87
Table 4.1 Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending order for Work Interference with Personal Life
92
Table 4.2 Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending for factors that impacts work – life balance
93
Table 4.3 Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending order, for work related factors that interferes with personal life
94
Table 4.4 Indicating the difference between awareness and prevalence about the work – life balance programs
95
Table 4.5 Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending order for the level of risk inherent in each program, on a employees career
96
Table 4.6 Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending order for the likelihood of usage of work – life balance programs by an employee
97
Table 4.7 Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending order for the dimensions of Emotional Intelligence of IT employees
98
Table 4.8 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Gender 99Table 4.9 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Age 100Table 4.10 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Qualification 101Table 4.11 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Marital Status 101Table 4.12 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Management
Level102
Table 4.13 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Years in present position
102
Table 4.14 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Overall work 103
15
experienceTable 4.15 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Size of the
organization104
Table 4.16 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Working hours per week
105
Table 4.17 Indicating ANOVA for Emotional Intelligence and Gender 106Table 4.18 Indicating ANOVA for Emotional Intelligence and Age 106Table 4.19 Indicating ANOVA for Emotional Intelligence and Qualification 107Table 4.20 Indicating ANOVA for Emotional Intelligence and
Marital Status107
Table 4.21 Indicating ANOVA for Emotional Intelligence and Management Level
108
Table 4.22 Indicating ANOVA for Emotional Intelligence and Years in present position
108
Table 4.23 Indicating ANOVA for Emotional Intelligence and Overall work experience
109
Table 4.24 Emotional Intelligence and Size of the organization 109Table 4.25 Indicating ANOVA for Emotional Intelligence and Working
hours per week110
Table 4.26 Indicating (coefficients) stepwise multiple regression of emotional intelligence on work interferes with personal life
111
Table 4.27 Indicating (coefficients) stepwise multiple regression of emotional intelligence on factors impacting work – life balance
111
Table 4.28 Indicating (coefficients) stepwise multiple regression of emotional intelligence on work related factors interfering with personal life
112
Table 4.29 Indicating (coefficients) stepwise multiple regression of emotional intelligence on Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs
113
Table 4.30 Indicating (coefficients) stepwise multiple regression of emotional intelligence on Likelihood of usage of work – life balance program by an employee
114
Table 4.31 Indicating Canonical Correlation Analysis between Work – Life Balance and Emotional Intelligence
115
Table 4.32 Indicating Pearson’s intra – correlation matrix between Work – Life Balance dimensions
117
Table 4.33 Indicating Pearson’s intra – correlation matrix between Work – Life Balance dimensions
118
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Number
Particulars Page Numbers
Fig 1.1 Indicates, total industry revenue and exports revenue in the 20
17
Indian IT industryFig 1.2 SWOT analysis of IT& ITES industry 22Fig 1.3 A Conceptual Paradigm of Work – Life Balance 26Fig 1.4 Ability Model of Emotional Intelligence 43Fig 1.5 Bar-On’s Model of Emotional Intelligence 44Fig 1.6 Goleman's Model of Emotional Intelligence Competencies 45Fig 1.7 Transformation of organization for managing change and
innovation46
Fig 1.8 A Model of Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Performance
49
Fig 1.9 The Connection between Emotional Process and Collective Beliefs
50
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY IN INDIA
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The origin of IT industry in India can be traced to 1974, when the mainframe manufacturer,
Burroughs, asked its India sales agent, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to export programmers
for installing system software for a U.S. client. The IT industry originated under unfavorable
conditions. Local markets were absent and government policy toward private enterprise was
hostile. The industry was begun by Bombay-based conglomerates which entered the business by
supplying programmers to global IT firms located overseas.
During that time Indian economy was state-controlled and the state remained hostile to the
software industry through the 1970s. Import tariffs were high (135% on hardware and 100% on
software) and software was not considered an "industry", so that exporters were ineligible for
bank finance. Government policy towards IT sector changed when Rajiv Gandhi became Prime
Minister in 1984. His New Computer Policy (NCP-1984) consisted of a package of reduced
import tariffs on hardware and software (reduced to 60%), recognition of software exports as a
"delicensed industry", i.e., henceforth eligible for bank finance and freed from license-permit raj,
permission for foreign firms to set up wholly-owned, export-dedicated units and a project to set
up a chain of software parks that would offer infrastructure at below-market costs. These policies
laid the foundation for the development of a world-class IT industry in India.
The Indian Information Technology industry accounts for a 7.5 % of the country's GDP and
export earnings as of 2009, while providing employment to a significant number of its tertiary
sector workforce. More than 2.3 million people are employed in the sector either directly or
indirectly, making it one of the biggest job creators in India and a mainstay of the national
economy. In March 2009, annual revenues from outsourcing operations in India amounted to
US$60 billion and this is expected to increase to US$225 billion by 2020. The most prominent IT
hub is IT capital Bangalore. The other emerging destinations are Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai,
Pune, NCR and Kolkata. Technically proficient immigrants from India sought jobs in the western
world from the 1950s onwards as India's education system produced more engineers than its
industry could absorb. However, there are severe skills shortage among engineers, especially who
lack in soft skill and technical skill, as a result engineering graduates remain unemployed after
being pass out from college or university. India's growing stature in the information age enabled
it to form close ties with both the United States of America and the European Union.
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The Indian information technology (IT) industry has played a major role in placing India on the
international map. The industry is mainly governed by IT software and facilities for instance
System Integration, Software experiments, Custom Application Development and Maintenance
(CADM), network services and IT Solutions. According to Nasscom's findings Indian IT-BPO
industry expanded by 12% during the Fiscal year 2009 and attained aggregate returns of US$
71.6 billion. Out of the derived revenue US$ 59.6 billion was solely earned by the software and
services division. Moreover, the industry witnessed an increase of around US$ 7 million in FY
2008-09 i.e. US$ 47.3 billion against US$ 40.9 billion accrued in FY 2008-09.
Fig 1.1 – Indicates, total industry revenue and exports revenue in the Indian IT industry.
Source – NASSCOM, KPMG Analysis
1.1.2 IT OUTSOURCING IN INDIA & INDIA'S DOMESTIC IT MARKET
As per NASSCOM, IT exports in business process outsourcing (BPO) services attained revenues
of US$ 48 billion in FY 2008-09 and accounted for more than 77% of the entire software and
services income. Over the years India has been the most favorable outsourcing hub for firm on a
lookout to offshore their IT operations. The factors behind India being a preferred destination are
its reasonably priced labor, favorable business ambiance and availability of expert workforce.
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Considering its escalating growth, IBM has plans to increase its business process outsourcing
(BPO) functions in India besides employing 5,000 workforces to assist its growth.
India's domestic IT Market over the years has become one of the major driving forces of the
industry. The domestic IT infrastructure is developing contexts of technology and intensity of
penetration.
In the FY 2008-09, the domestic IT sector attained revenues worth US$ 24.3 billion as compared
to US$ 23.1 billion in FY 2007-08, registering a growth of 5.4%. Moreover, the increasing
demand for IT services and goods by India Inc has strengthened the expansion of the domestic
market with agreements worth rising up extraordinarily to US$ 100 million. By the FY 2012, the
domestic sector is estimated to expand to US$ 1.7 billion against the existing from US$ 1 billion.
1.1.3 GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE IN INDIA'S DOMESTIC IT MARKET & MAJOR
INVESTMENTS IN INDIA'S DOMESTIC IT MARKET
The Indian government has established a National Taskforce on IT with an aim of formatting a
durable National IT Policy for India. Endorsement of the IT Act, which offers an authorized
structure to assist electronic trade and electronic operations.
According to Andhra Pradesh Government the state's SEZs and Software Technology Parks of
India (STPI) will witness an investment of US$ 3.27 billion in the next few years. VMware Inc,
San Francisco-based IT firm is looking forward to invest US$ 100 million by 2010 in India. EMC
Corporation's total Indian assets is expected to reach US$ 2 billion by 2014
1.1.4 SWOT ANALYSIS OF IT & ITES INDUSTRY
Strengths WeaknessesCost advantage – Most financially attractive country in a study by A T Kearney on global IT destinations
Breadth of service offering – End to end
Excessive dependence on USA for revenues – US companies are cutting down IT budget, hence revenues to be hit hard for Indian IT firms.
21
solutions including high end like IT consultancy and KPO
Ease of Scalability – More than half of India’s population is less than 25 years old. English speaking IT – ITES professionals growing at a good pace
Quality and Maturity of process – Many players have quality standards such as CMM to differentiate from other low cost advantage countries
Global and 24/7 delivery capability – Excellent internet backbone and telecommunications facilities enabling companies to develop 24/7 delivery capabilities from India itself
Excessive dependence on BFSI sector for revenues – Banking sector is facing a crisis globally and is going to spent less on IT.
High rate of attrition – Although slowdown in globally economy has lowered attrition rate, the industry still faces high attrition rates as compared to other sectors
Decreasing competitive advantage – Rising salary expenses is taking away the cost advantage enjoyed by India
Opportunities ThreatsGreater scope for product innovation – Increased focus on high end work like consulting and KPO. Domestic demand for IT services is to grow at 20%
Greater scope to service domains other than BFSI such as transportation, infrastructure, etc, Satyam – Likely to have positive impact on business considering corporate governance, possibility of shifting of business, getting higher incremental business from overlapped clients and winning new business from clients
Global economic slowdown may continue for several years – hence low IT spending globally
US Govt. against outsourcing, shrinking margin due to rising wage inflation
Rupee – dollar – Movement affects revenue and hence margins
Increased competition – From foreign companies like Accenture, IBM etc and low wage countries like China, Indonesia etc
Fig 1.2 – SWOT analysis of IT& ITES industry
Source - http://www.scribd.com/doc/22283990/Business-Strategy-IT-Industry-Tata-Consultancy-Services
1.1.5 FUTURE OF INDIAN IT INDUSTRY
The Indian IT sector persists to be one of the flourishing sectors of Indian financial system
indicating a speedy expansion in the coming years. As per NASSCOM, the Indian IT exports
are anticipated to attain US$ 175 billion by 2020 out of which the domestic sector will
account for US$ 50 billion in earnings. In total the export and domestic IT sector are expected
22
to attain profits amounting to US$ 225 billion along with new prospects from BRIC nations
and Japan for its outsourcing operations.
1.1.6 EMERGING TRENDS IN THE IT INDUSTRY
Globalisation and its effects in the global economy have a profound effect in shaping the
global IT industry. There is great, unceasing demand for technology-enabled business
transformation constant innovation in technology and technology-intensive products and
services across all sectors.
• Offshoring is predicted to increase. This will mean that low-cost nations, such as China,
Russia, Vietnam and Bangladesh, will gain a greater proportion of the international
technology market. Indeed, China has already become the biggest exporter of IT goods,
surpassing Japan, the European Union and the US
• The new challenges presented by technology are likely to be driven by the next generation
of ‘digital natives’, the generation that has grown up with technology. They are the
‘native speakers’ of the digital language of computers, video gaming and the internet. The
rise of social computing, powered by Web 2.0 technologies and the creation of new
technologies to form and extend networks will shape future IT products, services and
skills. This will have implications for the UK IT industry as the ‘digital natives’ enter the
workforce and transform the way in which businesses operate. Increasing environmental
concerns will also drive the demand for green IT and environmental computing. Such
developments will also be underpinned by communication convergence and integration.
This includes the development of the use of consumer-based products such mobile phones
and wireless internet access to enable remote working in virtual offices.
• The desire for ‘green IT’ and environmental computing is growing and intrinsically linked
to the debate about energy in the 21st century. Other major social factors influencing the
direction of the IT sector include the rise of social computing, increased consumer power
in determining content and services and the impact of the new generation of digital
natives and the expectations they bring to the workplace and the world market.
23
• There will be increased focus on client data and asset protection, risk, compliance, and
information security issues, hence risk management is likely to gain more attention.
1.2 WORK – LIFE BALANCE
Work – Life Balance is concept with several connotations and varied consequences within and
among stakeholders.
Over the past two decades the issue work – family and work – life balance have received
significant attention from employers, workers, politicians, academics and the media. The concept,
dubbed a ‘barbecue-stopper’ by Australian Prime Minister John Howard, has been described as
the “biggest policy issue we have”. Concerns about work – life balance have become salient for a
number of reasons. Demographic and social changes have resulted in more women entering the
workforce, working mothers becoming the norm rather than the exception. Technological
advancement (e.g., cell phones, e-mail, fax) have made it easier for work demand to intrude into
family and personal life. Further more, the move towards global competition has increased
pressure on organizations and individual employees alike to be more flexible and responsive to
change.
However, it is in the context of current skill shortages and the prospect of an ageing workforce
that it is now imperative for organizations to embrace work/life balance practices to attract and
retain talent, not only from traditional sources but also from untapped and diverse social groups.
These are social groups whose lifestyles can often demand greater attention to work/life balance:
working mothers, mature workers and some minority groups.
For future commercial sustainability, organizations need to ensure they not just encourage but
mandate a practical and workable work/life balance policy, benefiting and meeting the needs of
both the organization and its employees. And importantly, organizations not providing real
opportunity for employee work/life balance are opening themselves up to increasing numbers of
dissatisfied and unproductive employees and hence increased attrition rates. Merely creating a
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work/life policy framework is not enough; fostering an organizational culture that supports the
use of available policies is also of great importance.
In this climate managing the boundary between home and work is becoming more challenging.
There is a need for employers and employees alike to find flexible and innovative solutions that
maximize productivity without damaging employees well – being, their family relationships and
other aspects of life. Further more, the provision of work – life balance policies is likely to play a
role in recruiting and retaining good – quality employees and maintaining a competitive edge in a
demanding market place.
1.2.1 DEFINITION OF WORK – LIFE BALANCE
Work/life balance, in its broadest sense, is defined as a satisfactory level of involvement or ‘fit’
between the multiple roles in a person’s life. Although definitions and explanations vary,
work/life balance is generally associated with equilibrium, or maintaining an overall sense of
harmony in life. The study of work/life balance involves the examination of people’s ability to
manage simultaneously the multi-faceted demands of life.
Although work/life balance has traditionally been assumed to involve the devotion of equal
amounts of time to paid work and non-work roles, more recently the concept has been recognised
as more complex and has been developed to incorporate additional components.
1. Time balance, which concerns the amount of time given to work and non-work roles.
2. Involvement balance, meaning the level of psychological involvement in, or commitment to,
work and non-work roles.
3. Satisfaction balance, or the level of satisfaction with work and non-work roles.
This model of work/life balance, with time, involvement and satisfaction components, enables a
broader and more inclusive picture to emerge. For example, someone who works two days a
week and spends the rest of the week with his or her family may be unbalanced in terms of time
(i.e. equal measures of work and life), but may be equally committed to the work and non-work
roles (balanced involvement) and may also be highly satisfied with the level of involvement in
both work and family (balanced satisfaction). Someone who works 60 hours a week might be
25
perceived as not having work/life balance in terms of time. However, like the person who works
only a few hours a week, this individual would also be unbalanced in terms of time, but may be
quite content with this greater involvement in paid work (balanced satisfaction). Alternatively,
someone who works 36 hours a week, doesn’t enjoy his or her job and spends the rest of the time
pursuing preferred outside activities may be time-balanced but unbalanced in terms of
involvement and satisfaction. Thus, achieving balance needs to be considered from multiple
perspectives.
1.2.2 A CONCEPTUAL PARADIGM OF WORK – LIFE BALANCE
Fig – 1.3 - A Conceptual Paradigm of Work – Life Balance.
Source – NHRD Network Journal, July 2009.
1. The Environmental Factors
A. Technological Environment
Technological progress has contributed to labour and time – saving devices in many of the
activities associated with shouldering family and household responsibilities, ranging from
cooking to washing and housekeeping to name a few. Moreover it has also contributed to
Technological
Economic
Socio - Cultural
Institutional - Legal
Moderators
1. Gender2. Marital Status3. Size of family 4. Age of children 5. Social support: Instrumental vs. Emotional 6. Personality 7. Industry/Sector
WFC
WFF
FWC
FWF
Outcomes
Personal: 1. Health2.Family issues, eg., spouse, children Organizational 1. Financial Measures of Performance2. Non – Financial Measures, eg., Job Satisfaction Org Commitment
Feedback Loop
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emergence of virtual workplaces and flexiwork patterns which to some extent help cope with
work – life demands better than before. Telework and telecommunicating are becoming
increasingly common. While this development can enhance Work – Life Balance, it could have a
differential impact that lowers Work Family Conflict but increases Family Work Conflict.
The emergence of “extreme jobs” has contributed to workaholic symptoms such as the
increasingly blurred separation between work and home, so much so that even at home, work
appears to become the top priority. Other workaholic symptoms include over commitment to
work to the extent that ones happiness is derived from ones work, work takes precedence over
family and leisure time, no social life outside of work related events
(www.alalaboutlifechallenges.org).
B. Economic Environment
Global competition and global production networks through outsourcing have created relocation
of jobs across international boundaries and contributed to new ways of overcoming the human
talent deficit. One of the major fallouts of outsourcing is the increase in dual-income families in
developing countries, especially the emerging economies.
C. Socio – cultural Environment
Research has shown that the attitude towards work, as defined in terms of hours worked per
annum, varies across countries. According to the 1998 Far East Economic Review, in general,
urban Asians worked an average of 2150 hours per annum vis-à-vis 2068 hours for South
Americans, 1898 hours for North Americans and 1773 hours in Europe. Berlin, Germany,
reported the lowest number of work hours per annum at 1667, with the average worker getting 30
days off every year. Research in Anglo countries has also found a stronger positive relationship
between the number of work hours and work-family stressors (Spector, Cooper, Poelmans 2004).
Overall the Work-Life Balance issues confronting workers in the industrialised countries differ
from that in the developing economies. To a certain extent the problems may be a function of the
ageing work force in the industrialized west with higher demands on the care of the elderly,
whereas in the case of countries like India, It is the younger population that requires greater
family care and attention.
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D. Institutional and Legal Environment
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has been a pioneer in championing the cause of
workers with family responsibilities and has established several international labour standards
and recommendations on the subject. The ILO Convention of 156 on Workers with family
responsibilities covers all braches of economic activity and all categories of workers. Maternity
Protection Convention (adopted in 1919 and revised in 2000) and recommendation No.191 on the
subject provide for maternity leave extended from 12 to 14 weeks including paternity leave up to
18 weeks and provides for protection against dismissal of pregnant women and provision for
breastfeeding during working hours.
2. Moderating Variables
The relationship between the environmental factors discussed above and Work-Life Balance are
moderated by several variables including gender, marital status, size of the family, age of
children, social support, personality traits and industry/ sector. With regard to gender, as
mentioned above more men than women are engaged in “extreme jobs”. Further more women
than men reported strain based Work Family Conflict, and Family Interference with Work
appears to pose greater problems for women than men (Lilly, Duffy and Virick, 2006). Research
shows that women tend to derive less benefit from social support from their
supervisors/colleagues in comparison to their male counterparts (Van Daalen, Willemsen,
Sanders, 2006).
In terms of martial status and family size, those who are single and those with smaller families
and / or with grown children generally experience less work-family life tensions than those who
are married, have larger families and young children (Tung 1999),
As far as social support is concerned it is usually of two types: Instrumental support comes from
society and employers in terms of the provision of family care facilities, long maternity/paternity
leave, work women hostels and home for the aged to care for the ageing population. Emotional
support comes from ones family, managers or colleagues. For e.g. if a women can rely on her
parents or in-laws and/or servants to assist with child care and household duties she tends to
experience less Work-Family conflict.
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Personality traits can also moderate the relationship between environmental variables and Work-
Life Balance (Lilly, Duffy and Virick, 2006). For e.g., found that those with a high need for
power and a high need for achievement typically experience more Work Interference with family
and not Family Interference with work; while those with a high need for affiliation tend to
experience more Family Interference with work.
The nature of the industry/sector can also influence Work Family conflict. As mentioned earlier
“extreme jobs are more common in certain industries and sectors such as Information Technology
and Information Technology Enabled industries. Wilson 2003 found that having children
particularly early on, can severely damage the job prospectus of women. In general large
companies and those in more modern/emerging sectors (Information Technology and Information
Technology Enabled industries in comparison to the older industries like mining and
construction) typical adopt more family friendly polices that can moderate the level of tension
between work and life/family (Ferrer and Gagne, 2006).
3. Outcomes of the Above Factors of Work – Life Balance
If left unaddressed, work family and family work conflicts could adversely affect the employees
career (Hewlett and Luce, 2006). Family issues including increased incidence of divorce are
common where work-family conflicts escalate. Work-Family conflict can have disastrous
consequences on the organization, both financial and non financial wise. Research shows that
firms with better Work – Life Balance practices enjoyed significantly higher productivity. As far
as non financial aspects of organizational performance is concerned, research shows that firms
that adopt more enlightened Work – Life Balance policies can improve the level of job
satisfaction and increase organizational commitment among their employees (Pratt, 2006)
1.2.3 FACTORS INFLUENCING WORK – LIFE BALANCE
In this global competitive IT world the term Work – Life Balance is gaining importance and it is
time for companies to start thinking strategically and come up with innovative solutions, which
provides better balance between work and life for its employees. Some key factors influencing
work – life balance are listed below.
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1. A Balance of Family, Life and Work
2. Work/Life Conflict
3. The End of the Zero-Sum Game
4. Must Success Cost So Much?
5. Management Women and the New Facts of Life
6. What Do Men Want?
7. The new psychological contract
1. A Balance of Family, Life and Work: In recent years, the term ‘work/life balance’ has
replaced what used to be known as ‘work/family balance’. Although the concept of family has
broadened to encompass extended families, shared parenting and a wide range of social and
support networks and communities, the semantic shift from work/family to work/life arises from
a recognition that care of dependent children is by no means the only important non-work
function. Other life activities that need to be balanced with employment may include study, sport
and exercise, volunteer work, hobbies or care of the elderly. ‘Eldercare’ in particular is becoming
a growing issue for employers. The timing of these care-giving responsibilities is important
because, generally, people are established in their careers before the issue arises. Hence, eldercare
has the potential to generate greater corporate interest and response than did childcare.
2. Work/Life Conflict: Work/life balance is out of kilter when the pressures from one role make
it difficult to comply with the demands of the other. This is known as work/life conflict. This
means that if individuals do not feel they have a ‘good’ mix and integration of work and non-
work roles, they may experience negative or conflicting outcomes. This implies a bi-directional
relationship where work can interfere with non-work responsibilities (work/life conflict) and vice
versa (life/work conflict). Employees who experience increased stress due to work/life conflict
are less productive, less committed to, and satisfied with, their organization and more likely to be
absent or leave the organization. Individuals experiencing interference between work and
personal lives are also significantly more likely to suffer from reduced psychological well-being
and physical health. In one study, people who experienced life/work conflict were nearly 30
times more likely to suffer from a mood disorder (e.g. depression), 10 times more likely to have
an anxiety disorder and 11 times more likely to have a substance-dependence disorder (e.g.,
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heavy drinking), 3 times more likely to suffer from heart problems, infections, injuries, mental
health problems, and back pain and 5 times more likely to suffer from certain cancer (Social
Development Canada 2004). On the other hand, employees with lower levels of work/life conflict
report higher job satisfaction overall.
3. The End of the Zero-Sum Game: Most companies view work and personal life as competing
priorities in a zero-sum game, in which a gain in one area means a loss in the other. From this
traditional perspective, managers decide how their employees work and personal lives should
intersect and often view work-life programs as just so much social welfare. A new breed of
managers, however, is trying a new tack, one in which managers and employees collaborate to
achieve work and personal objectives to everyone’s benefit.
These managers are guided by three principles. The first is to clearly inform their employees
about business priorities and to encourage them to be just as clear about personal priorities. The
second is to recognize and support their employees as a whole people, not only acknowledging
but also celebrating their roles outside the office. The third is to continually experiment with the
way work gets done, looking for approaches that enhance the organization’s performance and
allow employees to pursue personal goals.
By following the principle mentioned above managers operate under the assumption that work
and personal life are not competing priorities but complementary ones. In essence they have
adopted a win-win philosophy.
4. Must Success Cost So Much: Undeniably, many people who reach executive positions in
organizations do so at the expense of their personal lives. They spend long hours at difficult and
tension jobs and retreat to their homes not for comfort and substance but for a place to hide and
vent feelings left over a bad at the office. Yet other executives who endure the same long hours
and tension-filled jobs come home full of energy and excited by the day. What distinguishes the
two groups of people is the psychological differences aside, the executives who successfully
cross the line from job to private life are able to do three things better than the other executives.
They adapt well to change in jobs, they find the right jobs for them, and they handle career
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disappointments well. The potential negative emotional spillover; and how the organizations
might obstacles to coordinating one’s private and professional lives and the important points of
discussion.
5. Management Women and the New Facts of Life: Women managers cost more to employ
than men. Turnover is higher. So companies are more likely to loose the money they invest in
developing women managers. The disparity in cost has two causes: maternity and tradition. Many
women take maternity leave and some find it difficult to return to work on schedule. But even an
extended maternity leave is a small portion of a whole career. The real cost differential – lost
investment in women is a result of the clash between male and female expectations.
Smart competitive, career-primary women are effective managers and serve as beacons for the
younger women companies need. Career-and-family women on the other hand are willing to
trade ambition for the flexibility to raise their families. This willingness to forgo advancement but
still give their best can greatly upgrade middle management.
Opportunity, flexibility and family support are the keys to retaining the best women and
eliminating the extra cost of employing them. Opportunity means judging and promoting
ambitious women on the same terms as men. Flexibility means allowing women to share jobs,
work part-time, work from home while there are young. Family support means principally, child
care.
6. What Do Men Want: While there has been a lot of talk regarding the “mysterious” needs of
women, there have been fewer questions on what men wanted especially in the realm of work.
After all, a man’s profession and ability to bring home a paycheck have traditionally defined who
that man was. And given that most men grew up believing in the conventional symbols of
manhood, wealth, power, status, there are still clear emotional and financial costs involved in
making other choices.
A new organization man has indeed emerged, one who wants to be an involved father with no
loss of income, prestige and corporate support and no diminished sense of manhood. But since
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many companies still deem dedication to career the sole marker of professional success, this new
man may believe has to hide his participation at home. Instead of taking advantage of his
company’s parental leave policies, for instance he’s likely to use sick days to watch over a new
baby. If the organizations do not develop suitable policies and strategies they also loose their best
and brightest men if they don’t address the needs of the 1990s man.
7. The New Psychological Contract: A great deal has been written about the changing
psychological contract between employees and employers (Cavanaugh and Noe, 1999). The rise
in global competition and advances in information technology are considered to be two of the
major forces behind the new contract (Schalk and Rousseau, 2001) In order to determine what
may have changed, it is important to understand the basis for comparison. The old psychological
contract was characterized by the paternalism of employers towards their employees (Cavanaugh
and Noe, 1999). Under the traditional arrangement which is essentially non-existent today,
employers offered a lifetime career in a single organization in exchange for continued loyal
service (Hall and Mirvis, 1996). Some have argued that the old contract is more mythical than
real. Today’s psychological contract is characterized by a recognition that the employee and
employer share responsibility for maintaining the relationship for as long as it is mutually
beneficial (Altman and Post, 1996; Sparrow, 2000).
When the new psychological contract operationalized well, it satisfies the needs of both
employers and employees. The new psychological contract might have created a crisis of
commitment, but the loyalty is still possible under the new contract. This can be achieved through
development opportunities and flexibility in exchange for performance and adaptability and
assume that individual employees are to be completely responsible for their own career
development. Employers unwilling to bear any of the responsibility for employees professional
development are likely to find themselves in violation of the psychological contract. Research
shows that high levels of violation of psychological contract have a number of potentially
negative repercussions, including increased likelihood of exit, neglect behaviors and decreased
demonstration of loyalty and organizational commitment.
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1.2.4 ORGANIZATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES THAT FACILITATE WORK –
LIFE BALANCE
In addition to the development of public policies supporting responsibilities outside of paid
employment, organizations have increasingly been developing formal policies that attempt to
facilitate the work/life nexus. Work/life balance strategies enhance the autonomy of workers in
coordinating and integrating the work and non-work aspects of their lives. Three broad types of
work/life strategies have been created to help employees balance their work and non-work lives:
flexible work options, specialized leave policies and dependant-care benefits. These include
a range of policies and practices like, Compressed work week, Flextime, Job sharing, Home
telecommuting, Work-at-home programs, Part-time work, Shorter work days for parents,
Bereavement leave, Paid maternity leave, Paid leave to care for sick family members, Paternity
leave, On site/near site company childcare, Company referral system for childcare, Program for
emergency care of ill dependents, Childcare programs during school vacation, Re-entry scheme,
Phased retirement, Sabbatical leave, Professional counseling, Life skill programs, Subsidised
exercise for fitness centre, Relocation assistance, Work and family resource kit or library,
Range of different organizational work/life balance initiatives. Source: Bardoel (2003).
These policies are generally aimed at facilitating flexibility, supporting employees with childcare,
eldercare obligations and alleviating the negative impact of interference between work and non-
work commitments and responsibilities.
1.2.5 WORK – LIFE BALANCE - AN IMPERATIVE FOR BUSINESS
1. Skill Shortages
In the past, the provision of flexible work options was often viewed by the organizations as an
optional ‘fringe benefit’. However in the present demographic and economic climate, policies
and strategies promoting work/life have become crucial. Many developed countries are facing
serious shortages of skilled workers across industries. This is due to the ageing workforce that
will grow proportionally over the next 20 years. Research conducted by Australian Government
Productivity Commission (2005) shows one-quarter of Australians will be aged 65 years or more
by 2044–45, giving rise to economic and fiscal impacts that pose significant challenges for
organizations of all types and sizes. Drop in fertility levels in women also contribute to this
34
‘structural ageing’. In 1996, the total fertility rate fell below replacement level (2.1 births per
woman) and a record low of 1.3 births per woman occurred in 2005. From an organizational
perspective, the adoption of work/life balance practices can help ease the problem of skill
shortages by attracting and retaining previously ‘untapped’ pools of talent – including mothers
returning to the labour market, mature workers and certain minority groups – by creating work
environments that would have been previously untenable.
2. Expensive Empty Desks
Work/life balance policies and practices can improve the ‘employee experience’ and hence help
organizations to retain their staff. Turnover is a major issue for many businesses because of the
costs of hiring and training new personnel, as well as the costs of not having departed employees
working toward organizational goals. The established link between the provision of flexible work
options and reduction in turnover means that work/life balance is now a strategic human resource
issue. Research suggests that where employees preferences for cultures and values are consistent
with actual organizational cultures and values, turnover is decreased. This is known as
person/organization fit. However, when priorities and goals are incompatible, employees are
more likely to seek consistent cultures elsewhere.
3. Why Work Here?
In addition to staff turnover issues, organizations genuinely promoting and supporting work/life
balance policies often receive community recognition as ‘good’ corporate citizens, or ‘employers
of choice’. Where skill shortages are evident, or where skilled applicants have a number of job
offers, the willingness or otherwise of an organization to accommodate employees work/life
balance may well be a deciding factor in accepting a job offer. In this war for talent it becomes
very crucial for employers to come up with attractive work – life policies and programs in order
to hire and retain their best talent. Environments that support employee’s work/life balance have
been found to improve organizational commitment, higher job satisfaction, less absenteeism and
less inclination to leave the organization directly affecting the bottom line – defined as a belief
and acceptance of organizational goals and values, a willingness to put forth efforts toward these
goals and a desire to maintain organizational membership.
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1.2.6 THE GAP BETWEEN WORK – LIFE BALANCE POLICY AND PRACTICE
Despite an apparently widespread commitment to the principles of work/life balance, the reality
for many employees is not always consistent with the rhetoric. Empirical studies show that the
mere availability of extensive and generous work/life policies does not necessarily result in
widespread utilization by employees or subsequent improvements in work/life balance and
reductions in work/life conflict. The low uptake in some organizations appears to be related to
different organizational environments, also known as ‘organizational work/life cultures’, which
affect the extent to which flexible work options can be utilized and work/life balance achieved.
Five distinct aspects of work/life culture have been identified from previous studies, all of which
should be considered by organizations when attempting to improve employee’s work/life
balance.
1. Managerial Support: Managers play an important role in the success of work/life programs
because they are in a position to encourage or discourage employee’s efforts to balance their
work and family lives, where supervisors enthusiastically support the integration of paid work
and other responsibilities, employees will be more likely to take up available work/life programs.
It has also been found that even in ‘family-friendly’ organizations managers discourage
employees using available benefits and programs contributing to increased work/family conflict
and vice-versa. Hence managers play a vital role in employee’s decisions to use available benefits
and programs.
2. Career Consequences: Another strongly associated factor with the under-utilization of
work/life policies, is the perception of negative career consequences. There is a negative
perception that employees who use family-friendly policies are seen as less committed to work
and the organization, overlooked for training, promotions, fringe benefits etc. This shows why
family-friendly policies tend to be underused. Importantly, participation by managers themselves
in work/family programs challenges the perception of work/life policy utilization and career
progression as being mutually exclusive paths within the organization.
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3. Time Expectations: The third factor that influences the use of work/life policies is
organizational time expectations the number of hours employees are expected to work. A
supportive work/life culture in terms of organizational time expectations has been found to
reduce work/family conflict, improve job satisfaction and increase productivity. There is false
impression. There is false impression that “If one is to succeed, one has to be at work, one has to
be there for long hours, and one has to continuously commit to work as a top priority. Working
long hours though, hinders the ability of employees to meet conflicting responsibilities and
subsequently forces some employees to choose between achieving balanced roles and progressing
in their careers. However, a move from the traditional notion of long hours at the workplace as
the primary measure of productivity to performance-based assessment requires a significant
paradigm shift for some organizations. The shift to evaluating performance on the basis of
outputs rather than time spent physically at the workplace is however an essential part of
developing a culture that supports work/life balance.
4. Gendered Perceptions: Even though organizational work/life policies is generally gender-
neutral and non-discriminatory, these policies have revolved historically around facilitating the
working conditions of women. Men’s uptake of alternative work options has tended to be
extremely low. Perceptions that work/life policies are developed only for women are the fourth
factor related affecting work/life policy. Some of the reasons discouraging men’s usage of
work/life programs are organizational workplace and the culture act as a barrier. Secondly the
competitive business environment is thought to discourage men from using work/life options.
Finally the domestic organization in employees own homes often prevent men from taking up
available work/life options, focusing on the centrality of the father’s rather than the mother’s
career. Organizations should encourage men to use work/life policy. Some work/life provisions,
such as paternity leave, are intended specifically for men and aim to foster a greater sharing of
responsibilities between men and women.
In conclusion from the above concepts and theories it is clearly evident that work – life balance
has is an issue that has attracted the attention of researchers and the leaders of the IT world.
Leaders of the IT organizations should start working towards making work/life balance both a
strategic goal and a reality in their organizations. By providing better work – life balance to its
37
employees IT organizations can derive the following benefits - improved organizational
commitment, reduced turnover and higher retention, reduced absenteeism, greater productivity
and reduced work/life conflict. IT organizations should change the widespread perception that
visibility = productivity. Finally IT organizations should ensure that formal policies in place are
consistent with what employees actually experience. Policy provision alone is not sufficient to
ensure employees work/life balance IT organizations should encourage its employees to make
use of the available work/life balance programs and ensure that employees using work/life
policies are not overlooked when promotion opportunities arise. Senior managers in
organizations need to ‘walk the talk’ and demonstrate that balancing paid work and non-work
activities is positive, necessary for physical and psychological health and will not damage career
prospects.
.1.3 INTRODUCTION TO EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Identifying factors that are important for success in life has been a challenge to researchers since
long. Even a decade before it was believed that traditional intelligence, which could be measured
as Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was responsible for success in life. Based on this assumption a
number of intelligence scales have been developed (for instance, Stanford-Binet test, Binet-
Simon test, Wechsler Adult Intelligence test). These scales predict the technical expertise of an
individual that helps him/her in performing the job and therefore, acts as facilitating factor in
getting a job, those scales are not meant for predicting why people are better in interpersonal
relationships, more acceptable to people and better managers of their lives careers and stress.
Then what qualities of mind or spirit would determine who would succeed? Researches revealed
that adaptability, leadership, self-confidence and interpersonal skills are some of the most
important factors that distinguish the top performers from the poor performances and that they
have no direct relationship with the so called traditional intelligence (IQ). Rather they are related
to the effective and intelligent management of emotions.
Is IQ destiny? Daniel Goleman (1997) says, “Well, not really. There is more to success than
having a high IQ. Studies have shown that people who are intellectually the brightest are not
often most successful, either in business or in their personal lives”. Steven Covey says that when
we are looking at verbal and reasoning capacities (the typical IQ approach), we look at a very
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small spectrum of human intelligence (The competitive paradox, 1996). Traditionally, an
individual’s smartness or success was measured in terms of his or her IQ. We almost immediately
assume that experts and professionals have a high IQ. However, IQ serves as only an index of
numerical or analytical ability. It has little or no significance with success in professionals or
personal life. So, the question is, “What is the component that makes Jack Welch, Bill Gates,
Gandhi, and Einstein better leaders, experts or professional in their field?” It has been suggested
by experts like Goleman that it is not IQ but Emotional Intelligence (EI) that makes these
individuals pioneer in their respective fields. Emotional intelligence is measured as Emotional
Quotient or EQ.
The world today is under going a change more profound and far reaching than any experienced
since the dawn of the modern age. Rapid environmental changes are causing fundamental
transformations that have a dramatic impact on organizations and present new challenges for
human resources management in general and leadership in particular. The transformations do
represent a shift from traditional intelligence to new paradigm of emotional intelligence. It has
been human nature to desire stability even in the ever-changing professional lives. The system of
life - and organizations – is fluid, dynamic, and potentially self-renewing wherein today’s best
leaders are learning to “go with the flow” to accept the inevitability of constant change and
recognize change itself as a potential source of energy. These profound changes cannot be
cuddled and integrated without addressing the deepest thoughts and feelings of Indian executives.
This requires the executive to open up the heart and deal with the emotions, welcoming them into
the workplace to ensure success in this ever-changing industrial environment. Various research
studies have unraveled that the leaders with higher emotional intelligence see changes as
opportunities for something better, and they do not cherish stability but ongoing development of
individual workers and of the organization itself become their prime agenda. This phenomenon of
paradigm shift has led many researches in the area and the present one is also an attempt in the
line.
1.3.1 BACKGROUND
The term Emotional Intelligence first appeared in a series of academic articles authored by John
D. Mayer and Peter Salovey (1990, 1993). These publications generated little attention. Two
39
years later, the term emotional intelligence entered the mainstream with Daniel Goleman's 1995
best-seller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ and subsequent articles in
USA Weekend and Time Magazine (October 2, 1995). More recently, Goleman's latest book,
Working With Emotional Intelligence (1998), has caught the attention of human resource
practitioners.
1.3.2 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – CONCEPT & DEFINITION
The concept of emotional intelligence is an umbrella term that captures a broad collection of
individual skills and dispositions, usually referred to as soft skills or inter and intra-personal
skills, that are outside the traditional areas of specific knowledge, general intelligence, and
technical or professional skills. Most of the authors on the topic note that in order to be a well
adjusted, fully functioning member of society (or family member, spouse, employee, etc.), one
must possess both traditional intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (dubbed EQ).
Emotional intelligence involves being aware of emotions and how they can affect and interact
with traditional intelligence (e.g., impair or enhance judgement, etc.). This view fits well with the
commonly held notion that it takes more than just brains to succeed in life - one must also be able
to develop and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships. Taken from this perspective,
emotional intelligence is nothing new. Emotions are an intrinsic part of our biological makeup,
and every morning they march into the office with us and influence our behavior. On some level,
we've always known that the ability to understand, monitor, manage and capitalize on our
emotions can help us make better decisions, cope with setbacks and interact with others more
effectively. But thanks to the work of Goleman and other researchers, we now have hard data to
prove it.
According to Mayer and Salovey (1993): Emotional Intelligence allows us to think more
creatively and to use our emotions to solve problems. Emotional Intelligence probably overlaps
to some extent with general intelligence.
The emotionally intelligent person is skilled in four areas: Identifying emotions, using
emotions, understanding emotions, and regulating emotions.
40
Goleman (1995) takes a somewhat broader position in describing emotional intelligence. In his
writings, emotional intelligence consists of five factors: Knowing one's emotions, managing
emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others, and handling relationships.
1.3.3 Why Study Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is a topic of growing interest in organizations and research. Modern
technology and globalization has led the human race into a zooming life where the risks involved
are high. Most people in organizations today undergo motions of crumbling trust, jarring
uncertainty, stifled creativity, distance between managers and co-workers, and vanishing loyalty
and commitment. Either organizations are ignorant of theses symptoms or do not want to
recognize them (majority of the times), as they would have to do something about it. Emotional
intelligence calls for recognizing and understanding of theses issues in organizations.
It calls upon the employees to increase their emotional self-awareness, emotional expression,
creativity, increase tolerance, increase trust and integrity, improve relations within and across the
organization and thereby increase the performance of each employee and the organization as a
whole. “Emotional intelligence is one of the few key characteristics that gives rise to strategic
leaders in organizations”
At a microcosmic level, EI will produce an employee who will know his capabilities, his job, has
an outlook in the future, and is confident of a well-thought action. This will be more valuable
than the action of an employee with high IQ and good knowledge, but low EI. This is where,
emotional intelligence plays a significant role in the organization and becomes an important
criterion of evaluation for judgment of an ‘effective’ employee. At a macrocosmic level, EI
increases productivity and trust within and across the organization.
Finally, Researchers today are interested in finding the effects of emotional intelligence on
employees and thereby, organizations, and analyzing the various other facets of EQ. Corporate
interest appears to be strongly related to the continuing search for a way of securing sustainable
competitive advantage which can be developed through attention to “people issues”
41
Emotional intelligence improves individual and organizational performance. It plays a significant
role in the kind of work an employee produces, and the relationship he or she enjoys in the
organization.
1.3.4 MODELS OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Two types of emotional intelligence models are available in the existing literature:
1. Ability model, which focuses on the mental abilities to define emotional intelligence and
2. Mixed models, which seek to define emotional intelligence as a mixture of abilities and
some personality traits and characteristics.
1. Ability Model of Emotional Intelligence
This model of emotional intelligence (Mayer and Salovey, 1997) emphasis on the cognitive
components of emotional intelligence and conceptualizes emotional intelligence in terms of
potential for intellectual and emotional growth (Schutte, Malouff, Hall, Haggerty, Cooper,
Golden and Dorheim, 1998). Four sets of mental abilities ranging from basic to more complex
psychological process were proposed in this model. The first set, ‘Perception, appraisal and
expression of emotions’ allows an individual to identify and express emotions in self and others.
The second is ‘assimilating emotion in thought’ It allows an individual to use emotions and to
facilitate thinking and to recognize respective consequences of different emotional responses and
to justify the appropriate one. The third set ‘understanding and analyzing emotions’ concerns
with the ability to understand, label and acknowledge emotions and to use emotional knowledge.
The fourth set is ‘reflective regulation of emotion’ which deals with the ability to manage and
adjust the emotional response to support the situational requirement (Mayer and Salovey, 1997).
42
Fig – 1.4 - Ability Model of Emotional Intelligence (Mayer and Salovey, 1997)Source - Emotional Intelligence myth or reality. By - Bhattacharya and Sengupta
2. Mixed Model of Emotional Intelligence
Unlike the ability model, mixed models include non-ability traits such as motivation, optimism,
interpersonal skill, stress management in conceptualizing emotional intelligence. The various
types of mixed models are explained below.
Bar-On’s (1997) model of emotional intelligence is one of the most well known mixed models.
This model was fundamentally based on the personality characteristics. Five broad areas of
emotional intelligence were proposed in this model: intrapersonal skills (such as emotional self-
awareness, assertiveness, self regard, and self-actualization); inter-personal skills (such as social
responsibilities, empathy); adaptability (such as problem solving, reality testing and flexibility);
stress management (such as, stress tolerance and impulse control) and general mood (such as
happiness and optimism).
Perception, appraisal and expression of emotions
Assimilatingemotion in thought
Reflective regulation of emotionUnderstanding and analyzing emotions
Emotional Intelligence
43
Fig – 1.5 - Bar-On’s (1997) Model of Emotional Intelligence
Source - Emotional Intelligence myth or reality. By - Bhattacharya and Sengupta
1.3.5 GOLEMAN: A MIXED MODEL OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The model introduced by Daniel Goleman focuses on EI as a wide array of competencies and
skills that drive leadership performance. Goleman's model outlines four main EI constructs:
1. Self-awareness – the ability to read one's emotions and recognize their impact while using
gut feelings to guide decisions.
2. Self-management – involves controlling one's emotions and impulses and adapting to
changing circumstances.
3. Social awareness – the ability to sense, understand, and react to others' emotions while
comprehending social networks.
4. Relationship management – the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others while
managing conflict.
Goleman includes a set of emotional competencies within each construct of EI. Emotional
competencies are not innate talents, but rather learned capabilities that must be worked on and
Emotional Intelligence
Intra-personal skills
Inter-personal skills
Adaptability
Stress Management
General Mood
44
can be developed to achieve outstanding performance. Goleman posits that individuals are born
with a general emotional intelligence that determines their potential for learning emotional
competencies.
Goleman's (2001) Emotional Intelligence Competencies
Fig 1.6 - Goleman's (2001) Emotional Intelligence Competencies
Source - Research Branch Correctional Service of Canada, Stys & Brown
1.3.6 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AT WORKPLACE -LEADERSHIP DIMENSIONS
Researchers have found that factors such as creativity, positive attitude, intergrity, cooperation,
teamwork, social skills and motivation play major roles in a person’s job suitability and
productivity (Goleman, 1995; Salovey & Mayer 1990; Williams & Sternberg 1998). These
qualities are rather influenced by aspects of emotional abilities. (Maccoby, 1976) suggested that
head represented intelligence and heart represented emotional aspects. This has thrown a
challenge to the researchers to forward a satisfactory explanation that would recognize the
45
contribution of the emotional abilities for success in both personal and professional life.
Emotional intelligence, to a great extent, addresses the above issues.
1.3.7 EMOTIONALLY INTELLIGENT LEADER - A MODEL
It is clear that emotionally intelligent leadership becomes a reality when leaders make a transition
from transactional approach to transformational approach to create the necessary socio-emotional
nearness to their followers. This results in strengthening the relationship between leaders and the
followers and helps for achievement of personal and organizational goals. In order to achieve this
a leader has to bring about planned changes in organizations.
The model below depicts emotionally intelligent leadership needed to bring about
transformational change in organizations.
Fig – 1.7 Transformation of organization for managing change and innovationSource - Emotional Intelligence myth or reality. By - Bhattacharya and Sengupta
`
The three dimensions of the above mentioned model are
1. Personal side of leadership
2. Social side of leadership
3. Organizational side of leadership
46
Personal side of leadership
Social side of leadership
Organizational side of leadership
Emotionally Intelligent Leadership
Transformation of organization for managing change and innovation
1. Personal side of leadership: Refers to self-awareness, which is the basic foundation on which
emotionally intelligent leadership is built. It is necessary for leaders to have an accurate self-
assessment by knowing his/her own strengths and limitations which are vital for leadership. This
helps in making sound and accurate decisions and helps achieve organizational success.
2. Social side of leadership: It involves understanding leadership in interpersonal context, where
leadership refer to connectivity and building bridges with others for attaining and maximising
common goals. Interactivity denotes interrelationship among people and refers to how they relate
to one another. Empathy, service and organisational awareness are corner stones of social
connectivity.
3. Organizational side of leadership: In this stage, the act of doing things together in the
organizational context becomes a reality. It is very important for a leader to collaborate and work
together with is team in chalking strategies necessary for organizational development. He should
communicate, provide opportunities, support and plan for development, identify the strengths and
weaknesses of the department and also competency gaps in the team and take initiatives to
improve the competencies. Further a leader should also provide candid and accurate and accept
feedback. Leaders should also provide the necessary coaching and mentoring required and
encourage, recognize and reward high performers. This helps the team as well as the
organizations to work towards common goals and strategies and achieve organizational growth.
1.3.8 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE & LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
It is very important for the leader to demonstrate the right kind of emotions and behaviour. The
way the leader behaves in an organizational environment will have an influence on their
subordinates. There is also a likelihood that subordinates learn and imbibe what the leader
demonstrates. Hence it is very crucial for a leader to have and exhibit the right kind of emotional
competencies. A leader should have good emotional self-awareness i.e. the ability of recognizing
how their feelings affect them and their job performance, these leaders know their strengths and
limitations and exhibit a sense of humor about themselves, they also welcome constructive
criticism and feedback and work upon them. This helps a leader to accurately access themselves.
47
These capabilities allow leaders to play to their strengths. Such leaders will be high on
confidence and often have a sense of presence, self-assurance that lets them stand in a group.
Another competency of a leader is the ability of self-management and self-control. Leaders with
emotional self-control find ways to manage their disturbing emotions and impulses and manage
themselves better under stressful situations. Such leaders are transparent, openly admit mistakes
or faults and confront unethical behaviour. Transparency is being open to ones feelings, beliefs
and actions. Further leaders adapt themselves to multiple demands without loosing his focus or
energy and are comfortable with the inevitable ambiguities of organizational life. Leaders are
achievement driven, high performers, set measurable but challenging goals and continually learn
and teach better ways to do things. Leaders take up initiatives they seize opportunities or create
them rather that simply waiting. Finally a leader should be optimistic, such leaders see others
positively, expecting the best of them.
Leaders should also exhibit the emotional competencies such as empathy, organizational
awareness and they should also be service oriented. Leaders with empathy are able to attune to a
wide range of emotional signals, letting them sense the felt, but unspoken, emotions in a person
or group. When it comes to organizational awareness leaders should able to detect crucial social
networks and read key power relationships. Finally leaders high in the service competence foster
an emotional climate so that people directly in touch with the customer or client will keep the
relationship on the right track.
Leaders should also inspire and influence their followers by encouraging them to work towards
common goals, vision or shared mission. Leaders adept in influence are persuasive and engaging
when they address a group. Leaders should also take the initiative of developing the skills and
capabilities of their team by providing candid feedback by understanding their goals, strengths
and weaknesses. Leaders should also be able to mange conflicts in the team by understanding the
differing perspectives, feelings and views of all sides and then redirect the energy towards a
shared ideal. Finally the leader should collaborate with his team members by spending time
forging and cementing close relationships beyond mere work obligations.
48
1.3.9 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE – GROUP AND ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Emotional Intelligence is becoming crucial today in the context of individual’s role based
behavior within group and organizational contexts. As organizations are becoming flatter in
structure, flexibility is the key issue. The span of control being larger for a team leader, the
relationships between team members and the leader are becoming more challenging. From
control based hierarchical relationships, there is a transition towards facilitation-based
empowering relationships. Also, the task structure and the reward systems are becoming highly
group-oriented requiring more accommodating and emotionally intelligent behavior to be
adopted to achieve both personal and organizational goals.
1.3.10 A MODEL OF EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND ORGANIZATIONAL
EFFECTIVENESS
Fig 1.8 A Model of Emotional Intelligence and Organizational Performance (Cherniss, 2001) Source - Emotional Intelligence myth or reality. By - Bhattacharya and Sengupta
The model illustrates three organizational factors, leadership, HR functions and organizational
climate that are interrelated, which ultimately facilitate in relationship building by enhancing
individual and group emotional intelligence and consequently, organizational effectiveness.
1.3.11 GROUP EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE (GEI)
To work as an effective group, it is necessary to enhance group consensus and cohesion by
minimizing intended conflicting tendencies among individual group members, which are
49
Leadership
HR Functions
Organizational Climate
and Culture
Individual Emotional Intelligence
Relationships
Group Emotional Intelligence
Organizational Effectiveness
potentially brought into the group as pre-programmed orientations by individual group members.
These orientations contain biases, resulting from unique socialization processes and experiences
and culture specific normative patterns of individual group members, which have become a part
of their personality. However the group members have to gradually learn to suspend their
judgment and beliefs and question them adequately to become re-socialized in the new normative
structure, as required for effective group functioning. The re-socialization process essentially
requires group members to evolve mechanisms for minimizing conflicts to enhance their
consensus-building abilities. In this, emotional intelligence can become an effective tool to
reduce intra-group conflicts and enhancing effective group norms, commonly shared and
cherished by all.
Druskat, 2001 has proposed the following model which demonstrates the connection of emotional
process and collective beliefs.
Fig 1.9 - The Connection between Emotional Process and Collective Beliefs (Druskat, 2001) Source - Emotional Intelligence myth or reality. By - Bhattacharya and Sengupta
GEI is an ability of a group to generate shared set of norms that manage emotional process in a
way which builds trust, group identity and group efficacy. A group with high GEI creates a
positive cycle and through the norms it develops to influence the emotional process.
50
Trust Group Identity Group Efficacy
Emotion ElicitingEvent
Awareness ofSituation
Individual Emotional Intelligence
EmotionalArousal
Group Emotional
Intelligence
Action
CollectiveBeliefs
1.3.12 DIMENSIONS OF GEI
1. Managing Emotion In The Individual Arena and
2. Managing Emotion In The Group Arena.
1. Managing Emotion In The Individual Arena: There are two dimensions how one can
manage individual emotions in a group.
A. Group Awareness of Members – It includes perspective thinking which occurs during
conversation with an individual with the idea of willingness to consider matters from the other
persons point of view and personal understanding, which is the understanding of spoken and
unspoken feelings, interests, concerns, strengths and weakness of the group members.
B. Group Regulation of Member Emotional Expression – It includes ‘confrontation with the
members’ who break norms, and ‘caring orientation’ which increases safety, cohesiveness and
satisfaction with personal learning and development.
2. Managing Emotion In The Group Arena: To utilise the effect of emotions at the group
level ‘group self-awareness’ and group self-regulation are essential (Barsade & Gibson, 1998)
which are explained below:
A. Team Self Evaluation – It is the ability of the group to evaluate itself i.e. it strengths,
weakness, while operating and interacting as a team.
B. Feedback and Positive Criticism – According to (Nadler, 1979) the impact of feedback on
motivation and cueing can bring about a positive change in a group. Factors such as attraction to
the group, pride, involvement, self-esteem are improved by positive feedback.
C. Group Self-Regulation – It is the group’s ability to manage its emotional states and create
desirable response. According to (Holmer, 1994) it is coping or managing with emotional
challenge which is a psychological threat perceived in a situation. The response of this emotional
51
challenge affects perception of individual or the group and interpretations of the fact and their
ability to take appropriate action. A group with low emotional capacity ignores the tension at
work place and blames external factors to the cause of these tensions. Groups with high
emotional capacity recognize and confront the problem with full awareness and responsiveness.
In conclusion, increasing number of scholars have argued that emotional intelligence is a core
variable that affects employees performance. Current thinking and empirical literature has proved
with evidence the importance of emotional intelligence. Research says that intelligent quotient
(IQ) contributes only 20% to an individual’s success whereas emotional intelligence (EQ)
contributes 80%. For the successful functioning of any organization it is very important to
understand, recognize and manage the emotions of oneself of others and of groups. Literature
suggests that managers with better EI competencies not only increase their own personal
performance but also of the teams they lead and the organization as a whole. The present day IT
world is very complex and most people in organizations today undergo motions of crumbling
trust, jarring uncertainty, stifled creativity, distance between managers and co-workers, and
vanishing loyalty and commitment. Emotional intelligence calls for recognizing and
understanding of theses issues in organizations. Emotional intelligence helps improve individual
and organizational performance. It plays a significant role in the kind of work an employee
produces, and the relationship he or she enjoys in the organization.
1.4 NEED AND RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
The concept of work – life balance is gaining importance across IT organizations. This study
aims at helping IT organizations build more effective policies with respect to of work – life
balance, it also helps the organizations introduce new work – life balance programs and
encourages sharing of best practices across IT organizations. Further the study facilitates to build
organization wide culture, effective use of policies and programs and also better integration
between work and non-work activities. Hence by offering effective policies and encouraging
employees to make use of the available policies and programs the organizations will in turn be
increasing the employee’s level of satisfaction and also commitment towards the organization.
52
This will help the organization retain its best people or talent, which will subsequently contribute
to cost saving.
In the present day competitive IT world, the concept of emotional intelligence plays a very
crucial role. Research suggests that traditional intelligence i.e. IQ contributes only 20% to an
individuals success where as emotional intelligence i.e. EQ contributes 80% to an individuals
success. This study will help realize the importance and the role emotional intelligence plays in
enhancing individual and teams performance there by improving organizational effectiveness.
Further the study will also help identify how appraisal, expression, recognition, regulation and
use of emotions facilitate performance. The emphasis on work – life balance in relation to
emotional intelligence in IT organizations has not been methodologically researched. The study
in relation to these variables in the context of IT organizations and its implications in India are
not available. Very few studies have been done globally in relation to these variables. The present
study is a serious attempt to understand and explore in the Indian IT context behavioral variations
and their implications that these variables have on employees. The insight will contribute towards
the basic understanding in IT organizations.
The study is an attempt to contribute afresh with a new perspective to the field of human
resources and behavioural sciences with special reference to work – life balance in relation to
emotional intelligence of employees in IT organizations. It is also an earnest attempt to bridge the
gap especially in this area by highlighting the relevance and importance of work – life balance
and emotional intelligence to leadership, senior management, individual and organizations and
hoping this study will initiate a series of serious and productive discussion on the subject.
The findings and outcome of this research will be beneficial to the IT organizations in India,
which is a flourishing industry and contributes significantly to the GDP of the country and the
talent pool of the world. The study will bring in sharp focus the major challenges encountered in
these areas and the solutions that will aid IT organizations to deal more significantly in
increasingly their effectiveness.
53
1.5 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To identify what aspects of work interferes with personal life.
2. To identify the factors that impacts work – life balance.
3. To find out work related factors that interferes with personal life.
4. To identify policies, practices and programs offered by IT organizations with respect to
work – life balance.
5. To find out the level of risk inherent in each work – life balance program, on an IT
employee’s career.
6. To find out the likelihood of usage of work – life balance programs IT employees.
7. To find out if there are differences across demographics and work – life balance.
8. To find out if there are differences across demographics and emotional Intelligence.
9. To find out Emotional Intelligence of employees.
10. To find out the relationship and influence between emotional intelligence and work - life
balance.
1.6 CHAPTERIZATION
Chapter 1 contains a brief about the information technology sector (IT) and an introduction to the
concepts in the study. It includes the origin, meaning, nature, definitions and significance of the
variables: work – life balance and emotional intelligence. The first chapter ends with the need
and rationale, objectives of the study and the chapterization of the thesis. Chapter 2 contains a
detailed review of literature. The review is ordered with the studies on work – life balance and
emotional intelligence. The chapter ends with the gaps and trends in the review. Chapter 3 details
the methodology adopted for the present study. Operational definitions, statement of problem,
variables under investigation, hypotheses, sample size, sampling technique tools employed for
data collection, description of the tools, scoring procedure, administration of the questionnaire
and statistical techniques employed. Chapter 4 provides the analysis of data which was subjected
to certain statistical tools and its interpretation. Chapter 5 contains summary of findings,
conclusions and implications of the study and the limitations and suggestions for future research.
Finally, the thesis ends with detailed references and an appendix where the tools and other vital
information are appended.
54
CHAPTER – II
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter is a documentation of the review of literature that has been carried out. It contains
empirical data that has relevance and significance to the present study. The review of literature
spans more than five decades. Trends in the review have been highlighted. The review is
presented variable wise and in reverses chronological order. The review contains studies on work
– life balance and emotional intelligence.
2.1 TRENDS OF RESEARCH ON WORK – LIFE BALANCE
The literature of work – life balance is full of discussion about the lack of effective policies,
underutilisation of work – life balance programs, job satisfaction, performance management,
organizational commitment, productivity and other related concepts.
The most important form of flexible work arrangement used in organization is four days a week.
It supports mothers, but at a cost because of gendered assumptions. The gendered construction of
the ideal worker and ideas of competence conflated with hegemonic masculinity, remain
powerful. This, together with a prevalent “good mother” ideology, undermines both gender
equity and workplace effectiveness Lewis & Humbert (2010). Indian organizations have to do a
lot to treat work-life balance practices as strategic aspect of organizational performance and
effectively communicate about the availability of different work-life balance practices, further
family contributes extensively to work in terms of enhancing performance and positive emotions
at workplace Baral (2009). Firms that adopt better work life balance policies can improve the
level of job satisfaction and increase organizational commitment among their employees Bloom
and Van Reenen (2006). Professionals viewed flexible workplace schedules as a key to employee
retention and placed this working condition at the top in order to control employee attrition Burke
& Collinson (2004). Lack of formal policies, employees not been given the opportunity to
express their views over the introduction and implementation of policies, Policies are introduced
primarily to meet business needs, rather than those of employees. These are some causes for
work-life imbalance. Employees seem to be more effective when they are engaged and
55
encouraged to participate and given an opportunity to speak hoping their work-life balance
concerns can be expressed and hopefully addressed Pyman, Cooper, Teicher & Holland, (2006).
Managers who supported and encouraged employees attempts to coordinate work and family
demands reported several positive outcomes. Such employees felt less work/family conflict and
at the same time reported less turnover, burnout, absenteeism and increased organizational
commitment. Ray & Miller (1994), Thomas & Ganster (1995) and Warren & Johnson (1995)
2.2 STUDIES ON WORK – LIFE BALANCE
Delsen & Smits (2010) To improve individuals' work–life balance, trade unions, employers'
organizations, governments and the European Commission currently promote a life course
perspective in activating labour market policies. In 2006, the Life Course Savings Scheme
(Levensloopregeling) was introduced in the Netherlands, which aims to increase labour
participation and to improve the work–life balance over the life course. What can we learn from
the Dutch case? In 2006, actual participation in the scheme was with 6% much lower than
expected. Participation rates were higher among males, full timers, older employees, the higher-
income groups and persons with a partner. However, our multivariate analyses of data for over
500,000 civil servants show that the higher participation rates of males, full timers and older
employees are related to the higher earnings of these groups, and that after control for earnings,
participation is higher among females, part timers and the young. This indicates that the scheme
has a potential to contribute to the work–life balance over the life-cycle.
Lewis & Humbert (2010) The most important form of flexible work arrangement used in the
organization, four days a week, is double edged and complex in its effects. It supports mothers,
but at a cost because of gendered assumptions. Despite a commitment to flexibility and “work-
life balance”, the gendered construction of the ideal worker and ideas of competence conflated
with hegemonic masculinity, remain powerful. This, together with a prevalent “good mother”
ideology, undermines both gender equity and workplace effectiveness.
Baral (2009) studied the scope and coverage of work-life balance practices in some of the
leading organizations in India. Based on review of literature, empirical study and analyses of
56
reports of news paper articles, research suggests the Indian organizations have to do a lot to treat
work-life balance practices as strategic aspect of organizational performance. Organizations offer
a lot of benefits in the name of work – life balance. However they do not form an integral part of
the companies polices. In knowledge centric organizations like IT and ITES industries where
women workforce participation is relatively higher, statutory policies such as maternity leave and
benefits are common, while practices such as flexi-time, work from home and part-time work are
still yet to pick up pace. Stress management workshops and training programs on work-life
balance are being conducted by organizations as part of the welfare provisions, but companies do
not follow them as regular practices in most of the organizations. Research shows considerable
difference between the responses of HR managers and employees. It was found that even though
organizations had quite a few work-life balance programs their employees did not recognize so.
This finding shows that HR managers have to put more efforts to properly and effectively
communicate about the availability of different work-life balance practices in their respective
organizations to their employees.
Baral (2009) In a study of 730 managerial employees from various organizations in India, it was
found that family contributes extensively to work in terms of enhancing performance and positive
emotions at workplace. One of the key findings was availability of work-life balance practices.
When an organization offers its employees policies, practices, benefits and services to help them
integrate their work and family responsibilities, employees feel committed to the organization
and indulge themselves in organizational citizenship behaviors.
Golden, Veiga and Simsek (2006) found that in 2005, that around one-third of American
employees have entered into telework and telecommunicating work arrangements. Though this
arrangement can improve work-life balance, it could have a different impact that reduces Work
Family Conflict but increases Family work Conflict. The impact that advancement in the
technological environment can have on Work Family Conflict is moderated by family size, job
autonomy and flexibility.
Ferrer and Gagne (2006) in a study examined that in larger companies and those like
information technology and information technology enabled services industries, in comparison to
57
the older industries like mining and construction implemented more family friendly policies that
can ease the level of tension between work and life/family.
Bloom and Van Reenen (2006) found that work family conflict can also have negative impact
on the organization, both financial and non-financial-wise. Based on a study of 732
manufacturing firms in US, France, Germany and the UK. Organizations which offer better work
life balance practices enjoyed higher productivity. As far as non-financial aspects of
organizational performance is concerned, research shows that firms that adopt more better work
life balance policies can improve the level of job satisfaction and increase organizational
commitment among their employees.
Pratt (2006) discovered in a survey of 1311 senior executives worldwide, conducted in May
2006, 24% of those surveyed refused a promotion that would put their work life balance at risk,
and 87% of them confirmed that work life balance is a key to their decision to join and remain in
an organization.
Ponzellini (2006) – Explored that for employees to communicate to the employers the need for
work-family policies in the workplace, employees must be given the opportunity to express their
requirements. Further unions do not support the availability of flexible work schedules and the
option to work from home. However there would be an increase in the availability of parental
leave, special paid leave and job sharing options.
Pyman, Cooper, Teicher & Holland, (2006). Employees seem to be more effective when a
combination of different form is present. The better the employee is engaged and encouraged to
participate is associated with better organizational commitment and job satisfaction. When
employees are given an opportunity to speak they feel more satisfied, hoping their work-life
balance concerns can be expressed and hopefully addressed.
Rothbard et al (2005) surveyed 460 employees focusing on the extent to which individuals
desire to integrate or segment their work and non-work lives. They observed that people who
want more segmentation are less satisfied and committed to the organization when they have
58
greater access to integrating policies (e.g. onsite childcare) than when they have less access to
such policies. Conversely, people who want greater segmentation are more committed when have
greater access to segmenting policies (e.g., flexitime). The fit between the desire for segmentation
and organizational policy has an effect on satisfaction and commitment over and above the
effects of demographic characteristics such as age, gender, marital status, income, number of
children and the ages of children.
MacInnes (2005) based on review of evidence from the British Social Attitudes Survey, 2002,
explores the myth regarding the reduction of working hours in order to enhance work-life
balance. The author asserts that work-life policies designed for the reduction of working hours
are of particular interest to workers with family responsibilities. However workers in Britain
report that the kind of time-stress bought in by “long hours culture” has little relationship
between workers family situation and preferences for working few hours. Families with
responsibilities and young children may not be in a position to work for shorter hours as they
need the income to support their families that only substantial working hours bring. On the
contrary workers with no family responsibilities have the option to swap income or career
progression for increased leisure time.
Caster et al (2004) explores the features that influence supervisor’s decision to refer
subordinates to work-family programs. The study reveals that program awareness and
instrumentality perceptions contributed individually to predicting the frequency of supervisors
referrals to work-family programs. Supportive attitudes also predict referrals, but only through
their shared relationships with instrumentality perceptions.
Spector, Cooper, Poelmans (2004) explored that, urban Asians on an average worked for 2,149
hours per annum as compared to 2,068 hour for South Americans, 1,898 hours for North
Americans and 1,773 hours in Europe. The lowest work hours per annum were reported by Berlin
and Germany at 1,667, with the average worker getting 30 days off every year. Research has also
found a stronger positive relationship between the number of work hours and work-family
stressors in Anglo countries.
59
Rappoport, Lewis and Gambles (2004) Report that workplace tend to resemble the US model
to support people to be able to work more rather than less. This could be due to the influence of
Multinational Corporations policies and procedures. Indians still consider work life balance as an
issue. Work still takes priority over family life. Some companies show themselves as being a
family friendly workplace to attract more people towards the organization. Instead of this
companies should facilitate women to advance in the workplace. Training programs and career
advancement opportunity are being provided to women by organizations like WIPS (Women in
Public Sector), are working with the British High Commission and the standing Conference on
Public Enterprises. Further the government and multinational corporations have realized that they
cannot afford to loose qualified, experienced and talented employee’s women halfway for family
related reasons. Instead organizations feel that it would be better to design human resource
policies to enable employees with family responsibilities to carry on both family and work
responsibilities.
Burke & Collinson (2004) - In a recent pool by the members of Society for Human Resource
Management indicated that professionals viewed flexible workplace schedules as a key to
employee retention and placed this working condition at the top in order to control employee
attrition.
Hyman and Summers (2004) Research shows some major issues associated with work-life
balance. The reasons are Unevenness of adoption across different sectors and organizations, Lack
of formal policies, employees are not given the opportunity to express their views over the
introduction and implementation of policies, Policies are introduced primarily to meet business
needs, rather than those of employees, Domestic responsibilities are still conducted primarily by
women irrespective of their employment status. These are some of the major issues research
shows are the causes for work-life imbalance.
Zimmerman (2003) studied the strategies that dual earner couples adopt in balancing family and
work. In a study of 47 middle-class, dual earner couples with children, who see themselves as
successful in balancing family and work, their thought is classified into six general partnership
themes such as shared housework, mutual and active involvement in childcare, joint decision-
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making, equal access to and influence over finances, value placed on both partners work life
goals and shared emotion work. Couples who are successful ten to share housework and emotion
work. Naturally wives perform slightly more childcare and are primarily responsible for
organising family life. Further Zimmerman notes that wives perceive that husband’s careers are
slightly more prioritised.
Perrons (2003) examines that emergence of new technologies and patterns of working will
possibly reduce gender inequality by allowing more people with caring responsibilities to get
involved in paid work. Based on 55 in-depth interviews with new media owners, managers and
employees in small and micro enterprises in the new media hub of Brighton and Hove, Diane’s
study signifies that while new media creates new opportunities for people to combine interesting
paid work with caring responsibilities, gender imbalance still remains.
White et al (2003) analyzed the data from national surveys of British employees in 1992 and
2000 and their results suggested a conflict between high performance practices and work-life
balance. Surprisingly, the study indicates that dual-earner couples are not accountable to negative
job-to-home spillover. Further, the presence of young children has become less important over
time.
Hill et all (2001) A study conducted on 6,451 employees of IBM in USA observes how
perceived flexible work timings and location of work place impact work-life balance. The study
showed that individuals with the same workload and with perceived job flexibility enjoy good
work-life balance and are capable of working longer hours before workload negatively impacts
their work-life balance.
Bachmann (2000) Schwartz (1994) found that work arrangements such as flexitime, telework
etc is depicted as an important factor of an individuals work preference towards work time. There
is a suggestion that such work arrangements will help the employee attain a better blend between
their work and non-work activities. This will help the organizations recruit, retain and motivate
their work force.
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Perry-Smith et al (2000) in a study based on a national sample of 527 US firms, it has been
found that organizations that offer a wide range of work-family policies will have higher
perceived firm-level performance. The research also suggests that there was partial support for
the hypothesis that the relationship between work-family bundle and organizational performance
is stronger in older organizations and organizations that employee majority of women.
Softwares developers are considered the key occupation to examine in future studies of
‘knowledge workers’ [Ackroyd et all (2000]. They are the ‘vanguard’ of emerging work practices
[Barrett (2001)]. Keeping in mind the long hours working culture and 24/7 support employees in
the IT industry are the ones which suffer the most from work-life conflict. Scholarios and Marks
(2004) found that interference of work with personal life has a considerable impact on work-
related attitude for this group of workers. They state that work-life boundary variables affect trust
in the organization which plays a mediational role in these variables, relationship to job
satisfaction and organizational commitment. Even though employees in the IT industry are
unique in their direction, market oriented and not likely to show attachment to a single
organization. In such a case both employee and employer can gain by helping each other by
accommodating approach to non-work commitments which may lead to greater organizational
attachment.
Tompson (1999) found that work/family culture is a collective perception by members of an
organization that it “supports and values the integration of employees work and family lives”
Hill et all (1998) summaries that qualitative research on virtual office and its effects on work and
work-life balance revealed the perception of greater productivity, higher morale, increased
flexibility and longer work hours due to telework, as well as an equivocal influence on work-life
balance and negative influence on teamwork. They studied 157 IBM teleworkers and 89 others in
traditional office setting. Using a quasi-experimental design, quantitative multivariate analyses
supported the qualitative findings related to productivity, flexibility and work-life balance, but
not the qualitative findings for morale, teamwork and work hours. Hill et all highlight the need
for a multi-method approach, including both qualitative and quantitative elements when studying
telework.
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Research findings show that work-life balance practices help employees manage their work and
family better (Thomas and Ganster, 1995) and enhance their approach and behaviors such as
organizational attachment (Grover and Crooker, 1995), job satisfaction (Koseek and Ozeki, 1998)
and intention to stay (Lobel and Kossek, 1996). Availability of work-life balance practices
reduces employee absenteeism (Dex and Scheibl, 1999) and enhances organizations productivity.
(Sands and Harper, 2007). These practices are increasingly being considered as strategic,
innovative, crucial and progressive (Perry-Smith and Blum, 2000) worldwide. However there is
lesser evidence of the status and impact of these practices in Indian organizations (Poster 2005,
Wang, Lawler, Shi, Walumbwa & Piao, 2008)
Ray & Miller (1994), Thomas & Ganster (1995) and Warren & Johnson (1995) found that
there is an association between family-friendly work environments and others factors of interest
including turnover, absenteeism, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Managers who
supported and encouraged employees attempts to coordinate work and family demands reported
several positive outcomes. Such employees felt less work/family conflict and at the same time
reported less turnover, burnout, absenteeism and increased organizational commitment.
Galinsky, Friedman & Hernandez (1991) point out that it is time to recognized and understand
that work-life balance practices are of value to all. It helps the organizations to retain their best
employees, attract prospective employees and also helps in employee retention and motivation.
2.3 TRENDS OF RESEARCH ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Investigated the trait emotional intelligence profiles of 512 students from five university
faculties: technical studies, natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Using the Trait
Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, it was hypothesised that (a) social sciences would score
higher than technical studies in Emotionality, (b) arts would score higher than technical studies in
Emotionality, (c) arts would score lower than technical studies in Self-control, and (d) there
would be an interaction between gender and faculty, whereby female students would score higher
than male students within the social sciences only. Several other exploratory comparisons were
also performed. Results supported hypotheses (a), (b), and (d), but not hypothesis (c), although
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the differences were in the predicted direction. Sánchez-Ruiz, Jose, Carlos, Prez-Gonzlez and
Petride (2010). Employee leaders with better emotional intelligence competencies not only
increase their own personal performance but also of the teams they lead. Koman, E. S., & Wolff,
S. B. (2008). There is a relation between leader EI and all of the components of the
transformational leadership style, EI was not related to job satisfaction, but was related to
perceived success, a strong relationship was found between transformational leadership behaviors
and the leader self-reports of being innovative, intuitive, self-aware, motivated, socially adept,
empathic, and managing emotions Srivsastava and Bharamanaikar (2004). Research shows about
assisting employees in organizations develop emotional intelligence competencies which
distinguish outstanding performers from average ones. Cherniss and Adler (2000). Ohio State
Leadership Studies reported that leaders who were able to establish mutual trust, respect, and
certain warmth and rapport with members of their group were more effective Mumford, Zaccaro,
Harding, Jacobs, & Fleishman (2000). The US Air Force found by using emotional intelligence
to select its personnel their possibility of selecting successful recruiters increased by nearly three-
fold. They profited by saving of $3 million annually, these people scored significantly higher in
the emotional intelligence competencies of Assertiveness, Empathy, Happiness, and Emotional
Self Awareness Boyatzis (1999). Findings prove that by creating a working climate that nurtures
employees and encourage them to give their best is possible by an emotionally intelligent leader.
This helps the business improve its performance. This was found in a study of CEOs in U.S.
insurance companies. CEOs who exhibited more EI competencies showed better financial results
as measured by both profit and growth Williams (1994). Social exchanges helps improve
employee performance. Social exchange involves interactions. Further emotional understanding,
regulation, and utilization would help to cultivate positive social interactions and exchanges in an
organization and as a result facilitate employee performance Blau (1964). Research shows how
the relation between emotional and social intelligence competencies and organizational success.
Not much of difference between male and female leaders in their demonstration of emotional and
social intelligence competencies. male leaders were considered to be more successful, even
though male and female leaders demonstrated the same level of competencies. The four
competencies that divided the most successful male and female leaders from their typical
counterparts were Self Confidence, Achievement Orientation, Inspirational Leadership and
Change Catalyst Hopkins & Bilimoria (2008).
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2.4 STUDIES ON EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Sánchez-Ruiz, Jose, Carlos, Prez-Gonzlez and Petride (2010) Investigated the trait emotional
intelligence (trait EI or trait emotional self-efficacy) profiles of 512 students from five university
faculties: technical studies, natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities. Using the Trait
Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, it was hypothesised that (a) social sciences would score
higher than technical studies in Emotionality, (b) arts would score higher than technical studies in
Emotionality, (c) arts would score lower than technical studies in Self-control, and (d) there
would be an interaction between gender and faculty, whereby female students would score higher
than male students within the social sciences only. Several other exploratory comparisons were
also performed. Results supported hypotheses (a), (b), and (d), but not hypothesis (c), although
the differences were in the predicted direction.
Nelis, Quoidbach, Mikolajczak and Hansenne (2009) The construct of emotional intelligence
(EI) refers to the individual differences in the perception, processing, regulation, and utilization
of emotional information. As these differences have been shown to have a significant impact on
important life outcomes (e.g., mental and physical health, work performance and social
relationships), this study investigated, using a controlled experimental design, whether it is
possible to increase EI. Participants of the experimental group received a brief empirically-
derived EI training (four group training sessions of two hours and a half) while control
participants continued to live normally. Results showed a significant increase in emotion
identification and emotion management abilities in the training group. Follow-up measures after
6 months revealed that these changes were persistent. No significant change was observed in the
control group. These findings suggest that EI can be improved and open new treatment avenues.
Hopkins & Bilimoria (2008) Explored the relation between emotional and social intelligence
competencies and organizational success. The study showed not much of differences between
male and female leaders in their demonstration of emotional and social intelligence
competencies. It was also found that when it comes to competency demonstration most
successful men and women were more the same than different. However gender did play a
reasonable role in the relationship between the demonstration of these competencies and success.
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Further male leaders were considered to be more successful, even though male and female
leaders demonstrated the same level of competencies. The four competencies that divided the
most successful male and female leaders from their typical counterparts were Self Confidence,
Achievement Orientation, Inspirational Leadership and Change Catalyst.
Koman, E. S., & Wolff, S. B. (2008). This study examines the relationships among team leader
EI competencies and team performance. The study was conducted on 349 aircrew and
maintenance military team members participated representing 81 aircrew and maintenance teams.
Results show that team leader EI is significantly related to the presence of emotionally competent
group norms (ECGN) on the teams they lead, and that ECGN are related to team performance.
These finding provides three suggestions. Firstly, Employee leaders with better EI competencies
not only increase their own personal performance but also of the teams they lead. Secondly, by
developing or hiring emotionally competent managers. Finally by developing emotionally
competent first line leaders, organizations should develop emotionally competent executive
leaders because each individual on the executive management team influences the development
of ECGNs on the teams he or she leads.
Carmeli and Josman (2006) research suggests possible connections between emotional
intelligence and positive performance in the workplace, methodologically sound studies do not
agree so. They say that even though research suggests that there is a connection between
emotional intelligence and positive performance in the workplace, it is typically based on self-
reported assessment and it overlooks that work performance is actually multidimensional (task
performance and organizational citizenship). Research suggests possible connections between
emotional intelligence and positive performance in the workplace, methodologically sound
studies do not agree so. Carmeli and Josman noted that task performance may not reveal the
completeness of a leader’s work role. Other behaviors like maintaining civil relationships and
helping subordinates with issues, would also influence the work performance. Researchers
explored two essentials of the leader: altruism (e.g., helping with a heavy workload) and general
compliance (e.g., being punctual) could be the reasons that maintain the leader’s respect from
subordinates and could, therefore, impact subordinates’ willingness to conscientiously perform
work for the leader. Carmeli and Josman conducted a study on 215 employees in different
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organizations in Israel to see if there was a connection between emotional intelligence with both
altruistic behavior and compliant behavior. Data was collected from subordinates and
supervisors, as well as the participants, themselves. Findings suggest that both altruism and
compliance were related to task performance. Researchers also found that three elements of EI
(appraisal and expression of emotions, regulation of emotions, and utilization of emotions) were
related to task performance and to altruistic behaviors, but only partially to compliance behaviors.
Romanelli, Cain, and Smith (2006) examined a study conducted by Pau et al. in which the EI of
dental students and the effect of stress were evaluated. It was found that students with high EI
scores were found to have more adaptive coping strategies and better time management skills as
compared to who had low EI scores, students with low EI scores were found to have engaged
themselves in unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, procrastinating, and withdrawing socially.
Brown, Bryant, and Reilly (2005) in their study predicted a connection between
transformational leadership (TL) and desirable outcomes. They also went on to say that they
would find transformational leadership predicts desirable outcomes. Further they predicted that
there would be a positive relation between EI and desirable outcomes, but were not sure if this
relation would be a simple relationship or would only emerge after factoring out the effects of
transformational leadership. The same authors also predicted that there would be a positive
relation with transformational leadership and EQ-i (Bar-On, 1996) and a negative relation with
contingent reward and with laissez-faire leadership styles. Further they went on to propose by
adding EI as well as transformational leadership to a predictive model of desirable outcomes and
predicted an interaction effect between EI and TL.
Srivsastava and Bharamanaikar (2004) evaluated leadership effectiveness with a unique
population for EI literature (but not unusual for research with Fiedler’s Theory of Leadership
Effectiveness: Fiedler, 1967). For the purpose of analysis data was collected from 291 Indian
army officers. Findings reveal that there is a relation between leader EI and all of the components
of the transformational leadership style. Further higher EI scores were also found for the
contingent reward component of transactional style. There was no relationship between EI was
not related to job satisfaction, but was related to perceived success. This is the only research to
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that evaluates age differences and researchers found that scores for most of the dimensions for
transformational leadership increased with age, especially inspiration and motivation. Since this
study provided a cross-section of age and experience, the population for this study was very
different from the usual “senior management” populations, who may all perceive themselves as
quite successful and effective. A strong relationship was found between transformational
leadership behaviors and the leader self-reports of being innovative, intuitive, self-aware,
motivated, socially adept, empathic, and managing emotions. The army officers who rated
themselves high on EI also perceived themselves to be more successful in their careers.
Petrides, Frederickson, and Furnham (2004) found that individuals who have below average
intelligence, tend to benefit academically, if they have higher scores on measures of emotional
intelligence (however, no benefit was observed for individuals with above average intelligence).
Additionally, some research suggests that successful transition from high school to college is
related to higher scores on measures of emotional intelligence.
Mandell and Pherwani (2003) conducted a research which involved 13 male and 19 female
managers in mid- to large-size companies, with the objective of measuring gender differences in
the relationship between EI and transformational leadership. Results indicate that female
managers scored significantly higher in EI as compared to that of male managers. However there
was no gender differences found when comparing the relationship between EI and
transformational leadership. Overall there was a considerable positive relationship between the
total EI scores and transformational leadership scores of the managers. Mayer and colleagues also
found that females scored better than males with regard to managing own and other’s emotions.
Antonakis (2003) is perhaps the only author who critics of EI leadership research. He opposes
the state of EI, including its usefulness in industrial settings, its measures, and even the basic
construct. He starts off by asking why EI is viewed as such a universal remedy for organizations
and as essential for leadership effectiveness. Antonakis commented on an article by Prati et al
where he says touting the wonders of EI with missionary zeal, including statements that EI is
necessary for leadership effectiveness and that is a “fundamental element” of charisma and
effectiveness. Antonakis argues that when personality characteristics and general intelligence are
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controlled EI uniquely contributes little or nothing to the topic of leadership effectiveness.
Further he also point out that it is not EI competencies or abilities that are required to understand
that subordinates will have positive feelings when given a raise and that they will suffer from
anxiety and have negative feelings when given a poor performance appraisal. Further he goes on
to say that a leader having controlled emotions is not always the best way to be effective;
sometimes a leader’s passionate, angry outburst can be more memorable and effective than
remaining controlled and empathic.
Salovey, Caruso, & Sitarenios (2003) Measures overall EI and four branches (perceiving
emotions, using emotions, understanding emotions, and managing emotions) An impressive
1,197 employee survey responses were returned. The correlation results showed significant
relationships between supervisor ratings for only two of the EI branches: perceiving emotions and
using emotions. Therefore, subordinates did not rate their supervisors as more effective if they
had higher self-rated scores for understanding and managing emotions. These results could
provide evidence that supervisors tend to exaggerate these areas or that subordinates simply do
not believe that these characteristics make their leaders more effective.
Vakola, Tsaousis, and Nikolaou (2003) Studied organization change in 137 professionals from
various public and private organizations located in Athens, Greece. Vakola assumed that positive
attitudes toward organizational change would be correlated with four of the “Big Five”
personality traits (openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness and neuroticism). There was no
prediction made for extraversion since it was not related to organizational change. Further they
also thought that the feelings the professionals had toward organizational change would be
related to overall EI, as well as specifically to control of emotions and use of emotions for
problem solving. They assumed that EI would enlighten discrepancies beyond the effects of
personality. There was also an additional hypotheses based on earlier research findings, including
educational background, but not gender.
Based on the above predictions the result for Hypothesis 1 shows that there is a significant
positive correlation with attitude toward organizational change were found for openness,
agreeableness and conscientiousness. The result also showed significant predicted a negative
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correlation for neuroticism. However when hierarchical regression analysis was performed,
neuroticism dropped out as a significant predictor. For Hypothesis 2, only the use of emotions for
problem solving subscale and the total EI scale survived as significant predictors for the
hierarchical analysis, although all were correlated. With regard to Hypothesis 3, both the total EI
scale and the use of emotions for problem solving subscale, along with openness to experience
and agreeableness in the personality test, forecasted positive attitudes toward organizational
change, with the use of emotion in problem solving subscale being a stronger predictor than the
personality variables.
MacCann et al. (2003) Research shows that there is a connection between EQ-i scores and job
success (r = .22) and between EI scores and university grades (r2 = .7 - .15). Further findings
reveal that more effective managers at certain organization have higher EQ-i scores than less
effective managers. However these studies did not check the Five-Factor personality model or
cognitive IQ in connection with predicting performance. However it is important to include these
measures in such experiments because both are known to correlate with each of these area, and
may be better predictors, accounting for the same or more variance as found with the EQ-i.
Pizarro and Salovey (2002) Studies reveal that there might be a positive or negative relationship
between EI and moral development, knowing that in order to achieve socially desirable and
undesirable a person could use her/his emotional skills. Much more research is required find out
the nature of these relationships, and also to determine whether EI concepts can be used
effectively to support moral/ethical development.
Palmer, Walls, Burgess, and Stough (2001) In a study which included 43 past and present
students in one of Swinburne University’s (Australia) business programs. Participants were from
middle or upper level manager positions. Trait Meta Mood Scale (TMMS) (Salovey et al., 1995),
a predecessor of the MSCEIT that included emotional as well as cognitive items, and the MLQ to
examine the relationship between leadership style and EI was used to conduct the research. The
research assumption that transformational leaders would be higher in EI than transactional
leaders was not supported. This finding was based on the total transformational and total
transactional scores. However, when the authors continued their analyses down to the level of
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subscales of the separate dimensions of the TMMS, they did find relationships between some of
these sub-scales, such as between emotional monitoring and inspirational motivation and between
idealized influence and emotional monitoring. Even though the authors were assuming the
opposite direction, a positive relationship was found between the contingent reward component
of transactional leadership and the emotional monitoring subscale, and with contingent reward
and the total transformational leadership score, concluding that “perhaps ‘contingent reward’
overlaps considerably with the transformational leadership component”. Further the authors also
suggest that there is a careful optimism for pursuing the connection between EI and the
competencies of transformational leadership.
Barling, Slater, and Kelloway (2000) Conducted a study to find out whether EI influences
leaders to make use of transformational leadership behaviors, however they re-categorized
contingent reward as being “more like” a transformational behavior and included it there. The
researchers evaluated 60 middle level managers using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire
(MLQ) and Seligman’s Attributional Style Questionnaire, along with the Emotional Intelligence
Inventory (EQ-i, Bar-On, 1997). Using a multivariate analysis, they found significant univariate
results positively connecting idealized influence, inspirational motivation, and individualized
consideration (MLQ characteristics of transformational leadership style), as well as contingent
reward, to Bar-On’s EI measure, but the intellectual stimulation relationship to EI was not found.
No significant relationship was found between EI and management-by-exception or laissez-faire
styles. The authors suggest that future research should examine whether managers can be trained
to use transformational leadership techniques.
George (2000) Has made efforts to find out whether different aspects of emotional understanding
and emotional management with behavior whether theoretically or conceptually make the leader
more effective. She argues that successful leader as, instilling the importance of working toward
the corporate goal, instilling excitement in the workers, encouraging flexibility in decision
making and establishing and maintaining a meaningful identity or corporate culture. She
concludes, “at a minimum, emotions and emotional intelligence are worthy of considering in the
leadership domain”.
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George (2000) States that emotions play a crucial role in the leadership process and hence
emotional intelligence contributes towards organizational effectiveness. She focuses on finding
support for this hypothesis by trying to discover to what extent feelings play a central role. The
author tells that an effective executive is one who can calmly set aside feelings and pressures and
make sound and good decisions. George takes on the task of tying together social psychology,
organizational behavior, and even neuropsychology to make the case that emotions are central to
the human experience and, in turn, feelings - not the ability to coldly set aside feelings - are
central to effective leadership.
Cherniss and Adler (2000) Research shows that a professional application of emotional
intelligence is noticeable the way organizations have embraced the thoughts of emotional
intelligence. The American Society for Training and Development, for example has published a
book which speaks about assisting employees in organizations develop emotional intelligence
competencies which distinguish outstanding performers from average ones.
Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs, & Fleishman (2000) Note that, extensive research in the
area of emotional intelligence has focused on leadership and fundamental workplace quality.
Way before research in the area of EI had started, the Ohio State Leadership Studies reported that
leaders who were able to establish mutual trust, respect, and certain warmth and rapport with
members of their group were more effective. (Fleishman and Harris, 1962). However the result is
not surprising given that many researchers have argued that effective leadership fundamentally
depends upon the leader's capability to solve the complicated social problems which can take
place in organizations.
Davies, Stankov, & Roberts, (1998); McCrae, (2000) The EQ-i demonstrates strong
correlations with the Five-Factor model of personality. This strong correlation, also found with
several other measures of EI, has influenced a lot to ask questions like whether the whole concept
of Emotional Intelligence is just studying personality characteristics by a new name. The EQ-i
correlates most strongly with Neuroticism, with correlations ranging from -.29 to -.77 (Dawda &
Hart, 2000; MacCann et al., 2003). Correlations with the Conscientiousness, Extraversion and
Agreeableness scales were also high (ranging from r = .30 to r = .56). The Dawda and Hart
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(2000) scores are in particular relevant in that they were found in a college population. Because
of these high correlations, it would be difficult to justify the use of this measure in place of
personality measures without clearly establishing incremental validity for the EQ-i beyond that
already established for the Five-Factor model. This is especially true given that measures of the
Five-Factor model have a great deal more research done with them, and better overall reliability
statistics.
Boyatzis (1999) Experienced partners in a multinational consulting firm were evaluated on the EI
competencies plus three others. Partners who scored above the median on 9 or more of the 20
competencies delivered $1.2 million more profit from their accounts than did other partners – a
139 percent incremental gain. The US Air Force used the EQ-I to select its front-line HR
personnel. It was fount that people who were successfully selected scored significantly higher in
the emotional intelligence competencies of Assertiveness, Empathy, Happiness, and Emotional
Self Awareness. The Air Force also found by using emotional intelligence to select its personnel
their possibility of selecting successful recruiters increased by nearly three-fold. They profited by
saving of $3 million annually. This resulted in the Government Accounting Office submitting a
report to Congress requesting the Secretary of Defense order all branches of the armed forces to
adopt this procedure in recruitment and selection.
(Goleman, 1998b) Found out how important Emotional Self-Awareness i.e. recognizing one’s
own feelings and its impact on one’s performance. In a financial services company emotional
self-awareness was found to play a critical role in financial planners’ job performance. The
interaction that takes place between the financial planner and a customer is delicate, it not only
deals with some hard questions about money but also, when the question life insurance arises, the
even more discomforting issue of mortality; the planners’ Self-Awareness actually helps the
financial planner handle their own emotional reactions better.
Goleman (1998) Competency research in over 200 companies and organizations worldwide
shows that about one-third of the difference is due to technical skill and cognitive ability while
two-thirds is due to emotional competence. (In top leadership positions, over four-fifths of the
difference is due to emotional competence.
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Bar-On’s (1997) Model portrays social responsibility and empathy as specific interpersonal
skills. Goleman’s 1995 model includes the same empathic awareness and attunement, this is the
skill required to recognizing emotions in others. Knowing these varying EI models the study of
the relationship of EI to moral/ethical behavior and to values has been inconsistent. There has
been very little empirical research published till date. Even though, moral/ethics/values
dimensions are often described as part of the basis for educational programs involving EI a well-
designed empirical research in this area is very much a necessity.
Holahan & Sears (1995) In a study of 112 entry-level accountants, those who scored high on
Self-Efficacy, a form of Self-Confidence were rated as high performers by their supervisors. It
was the level of Self-Confidence which acted as a stronger predictor of performance as compared
to the level of skill or previous training.
Saks (1995) In a sixty-year study of more than one thousand men and women with high-IQ from
early childhood to retirement, it was found that those who possessed Self-Confidence during their
early years were most successful in their careers.
Williams (1994) The relationship between EI strengths in a leader and performance of the unit
lead appears to be mediated by the climate the leader creates. In the study of insurance CEOs, for
example, a relationship was found the EI abilities of the leader and the organizational climate.
Climate reflects people’s sense of their ability to do their jobs well. Climate indicators include the
degree of clarity in communication; the degree of employees flexibility in doing their jobs, ability
to innovate, and ownership of and responsibility for their work; and the level of the performance
standards set (Litwin & Stringer, 1968; Tagiuri & Litwin, 1968). In the insurance industry study,
the climate created by CEOs among their direct reports forecasted the business performance of
the entire organization and in three-quarters of the cases climate alone could be used to correctly
sort companies by profits and growth.
Williams (1994) Showed EI can affect the success of an individual in an organization. But how
does it affect organizational success overall? The findings prove that by creating a working
climate that nurtures employees and encourage them to give their best is possible by an
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emotionally intelligent leader. This enthusiasm in turn helps the business improve their
performance. This was found in a study of CEOs in U.S. insurance companies. Given comparable
size, companies whose CEOs exhibited more EI competencies showed better financial results as
measured by both profit and growth.
Salovey et al. (1993), Coping strategies are connected with emotion-management, and are thus
important components of emotional intelligence. Research suggests that individuals who report
low EI tend to use emotion-focused and avoidance coping styles (Emmons & Colby, 1995 as
cited in Fitness & Curtis, 2005), and that individuals who report high EI may use adaptive coping
strategies to alleviate distress (McFarland & Buehler, 1997, as cited in Fitness & Curtis, 2005).
Atwater and Yammarino’s (1992) Work on self–other rating agreements, Sosik and Megerian
(1999) argued that one’s understanding of one’s and others’ affective ratings (as a result of one’s
EI) would influence self–other rating agreements, which, in turn, would influence performance
outcomes. Lam and Kirby (2002) showed that overall, EI explains individual cognitive-based
performance above and beyond the level attributable to general intelligence.
Seligman (1991) Optimism is another emotional competence that helps achieve increased
productivity. New salesmen at Met Life who scored high on a test of “learned optimism” sold 37
percent more life insurance in their first two years than pessimists.
Lusch & Serpkeuci (1990) The ability to handle stress is another emotional competence that was
linked to success of store manager in a retail chain. Store managers who were successful were
those best able to handle stress. Success was based on net profits, sales per square foot, sales per
employee, and per dollar inventory investment.
Shoda, Mischel & Peake (1990) Cognitive and non-cognitive capabilities are very much related.
In fact, there is research suggesting that emotional and social skills actually help improve
cognitive functioning. For instance, in the famous marshmallow studies at Stanford University,
four year olds were asked to stay in a room alone with a marshmallow and wait for a researcher
to return. They were told that if they could wait until the researcher came back before eating the
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marshmallow, they could have two. Ten years later the researchers tracked down the kids who
participated in the study. They found that the kids who were able to resist temptation had a total
SAT score that was 210 points higher than those kids who were unable to wait.
McClelland (1975) Proposed how the idea of competence can be used for identifying and
differentiating outstanding from average performers at work at the work place. McClelland
(1998) studied the data from more than thirty different organizations and for executive positions
in many professions, from banking and managing to mining geology, sales, and health care. He
proved that a wide range of EI competencies (and a narrow range of cognitive ones) distinguished
top performers from average ones. Those that distinguished most powerfully were Achievement
Drive, Developing Others, Adaptability, Influence, Self-Confidence, and Leadership. The one
cognitive competence that distinguished as strongly was Analytic Thinking. Even though each
competence contributes uniquely to workplace effectiveness, the author believes it is less useful
to consider them one by one than it is to look at them in their clusters, where one can also assess
the synergies of strengths in several competencies that enable outstanding performance, as
McClelland (1998) has shown. For that reason, the author reviews here only selected examples of
data linking the EI competencies to workplace performance.
Blau (1964) Indicates that of the different types of exchanges organizations use to facilitate
performance social exchange is considered an important type of exchange in organizations.
Social exchanges helps improve employee performance. Social exchange involves interactions.
Further emotional understanding, regulation, and utilization would help to cultivate positive
social interactions and exchanges in an organization and as a result facilitate employee
performance.
2.5 OVERVIEW
Hence at a glimpse, review of literature on work – life balance and emotional intelligence has
focused on various aspects and dimensions. Work – Life Balance and Emotional Intelligence has
been studied with reference to organizational culture, stress, job satisfaction, well-being,
organizational and employee performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, satisfaction,
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commitment, motivation, leadership styles, organizational change, job success, organizational
effectiveness moral, ethics and so on.
There is very little research conducted on Emotional Intelligence in relation to Work – Life
Balance and it is very important to explore and intensify research in this area, as a lacunae has
been identified by the present investigator. The researcher has made a sincere and concentrated
effort to systematically bring together as far as possible the research studies related to Emotional
Intelligence and Work – Life Balance. Employees in information technology organizations were
investigated. The questionnaire method was used for the purpose of this study. This study will
help examine and understand the relationship between work – life balance and emotional
intelligence in the Indian context and its impacts in the IT organizations.
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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter focuses on research design and methodology adopted for the study. The chapter
deals with the terms and concepts used in the study, which have been operationally defined.
Careful consideration has been given for the selection of the appropriate tools, collection of data
and analysis of data. Hypotheses have been stated for empirical validation. The tools to collect
data, description of the variables investigated and scoring procedure are also explained. The
sample size and sampling technique adopted for data collection are also presented. Pilot study
and tryout of the tools are presented. The tools and the statistical techniques employed for data
analysis has also been explained.
3.1 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF THE VARIABLES UNDER INVESTIGATION
3.1.1 Work – Life Balance
The definition given by Fisher-McAuley, Stanton, Jolton, and Gavin (2003) was adopted for this
study. They describe work life balance as a competition for both time and energy between the
different roles filled by an individual. Someone's life can be considered unbalanced when the
amount of time one works causes some sort of conflict or stress in other areas of life. The
choices people make about their priorities can cause conflict with bosses, coworkers and/or
family members. Stress can also be due to spillover where a person is worrying about life issues
while at work and worrying about work issues while at home. Stress can also come from feelings
of guilt about the choices being made (Quick, 2004). Basically if someone feels that their life is
balanced then it probably is and if they feel it is not balanced their life probably is not. It is based
on their own perception of balance.
The work – life balance variables used in this study are defined as follows.
1. Work interference with personal life can be defined different aspects of work interfering
with personal life. Like, whether personal life is suffering because of professional life,
individuals neglecting personal life because of professional life, finding it difficult to
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manage both work and non work activities, finding sufficient time for non – work
activities, missing personal activities.
2. Factors impacting work – life balance focuses on factors like whether an individual gets
enough support from his family in his professional life, whether professional life has had
an adverse impact on an individual’s career, recognition of the importance of work – life
balance by managers and the organization and other factors of work impacting personal
life.
3. Specific work related factors interfering with personal life or for example can be defined
as going into the office on weekends, coming in early for work (or staying late),
volunteering for special projects in addition to one’s normal job duties, and so on.
4. The fourth dimension defines the level of risk to a person’s position (eg. stalled career,
overlooked for promotions, rewards, and performance bonuses and seen as less
committed) if they would like to use work – life balance programs like flexible work
schedules, work – from home all the time, part time wok etc.
5. The last dimension defines how likely is an individual to use the work – life balance
programs like flexible work schedules, work – from home all the time, part time wok,
career breaks, job sharing etc at some point of time in his career.
3.1.2 Emotional Intelligence
In this study the definition of emotional intelligence as given by Salovey and Mayer (1990)
has been used by the investigator. According to Salovey and Mayer (1990) emotional intelligence
is “the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among
them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions”
The emotional intelligence variables used in this study is defined as follows
1. Appraisal and expression of emotion in oneself: This relates to an individual’s ability to
understand his or her deep emotions and to be able to express emotions naturally. People
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who have good ability in this area will sense and acknowledge their emotions better than
most people.
2. Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others: This relates to an individual’s ability
to perceive and understand the emotions of the people around them. People who rate
highly in this ability will be very sensitive to the emotions of others as well as able to
predict others’ emotional responses.
3. Regulation of emotion in oneself: This relates to the ability of a person to regulate his or
her emotions, enabling a more rapid recovery from psychological distress. A person with
high ability in this area would be able to return quickly to normal psychological states
after rejoicing or being upset. Such a person would also have better control of his or her
emotions and would be less likely to lose his or her temper.
4. Use of emotion to facilitate performance: This relates to the ability of a person to make
use of his or her emotions by directing them toward constructive activities and personal
performance. A person who is highly capable in this dimension would be able to
encourage him- or herself to do better continuously. He or she would also be able to direct
his or her emotions in positive and productive directions.
3.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
A Study on Emotional Intelligence in Relation to Work – Life Balance of Employees in
Information Technology Organizations.
Work-life balance has become a universal concern for organizations as well as individuals in the
fast paced digital age that we inhabit. Raise in the 365/24/7 Global Operations, coping with the
time zones with more and more businesses emphasizing on round the clock customer services the
concern for work-life balance for employees has become more essential. Ironically technology
has added to the speed of operation, rather than easing the work practice. Employees are expected
to work long hours and cope with tougher deadlines. Today’s world literally doesn’t go to sleep.
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With all the above mentioned concerns regarding work – life balance this study focuses on
whether employees with better emotional intelligence will have better work – life balance. The
concept of emotional intelligence is an umbrella term that captures a broad collection of
individual skills and dispositions, usually referred to as soft skills or inter and intra-personal
skills, that are outside the traditional areas of specific knowledge, general intelligence, and
technical or professional skills. Emotions are an intrinsic part of our biological makeup, and
every morning they march into the office with us and influence our behavior. On some level,
we've always known that the ability to understand, monitor, manage and capitalize on our
emotions can help us make better decisions, cope with setbacks and interact with others more
effectively. Given the benefits that one can derive of having better emotional intelligence
competencies IT organizations should invest sufficiently in developing the emotional intelligence
competencies of their employees. This will not only help improve employee’s performance but
will also have a positive impact on organizational performance.
3.3 VARIABLES UNDER INVESTIGATION
The variables under investigation in this study are:
• Dependent Variable: The dependent variable is Work – Life Balance
• Independent Variable: The independent variable is Emotional Intelligence
• Demographic Variables: Gender, Age, Qualification, Overall experience, Experience in
the present role, Martial Status and Management Level, Size of the organization
3.4 HYPOTHESES
H1: There will be no significant differences across demographics and work life balance
H2: There will be no significant differences across demographics and emotional intelligence
H3: Emotional intelligence of employees will not impact work life balance
H4: There will no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and work life balance
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3.5 SAMPLE SIZE
There are around 3000 IT and ITES organizations operating in India. In these are 400 are multi
national companies from USA, UK, Europe Japan, Germany and so on. There are around 800 IT
companies located in Bangalore.
355 IT employees from 31 Indian, Indian multinational corporations and multinational IT
companies were surveyed for the study. The sample was drawn from all the three levels of
management. The questionnaire was administered to, 355 IT employees, 268 junior level
executives, 29 from the middle level management and 58 from senior level management.
3.6 SAMPLE PROFILE
Table 3.1: Indicating the gender of the respondents in percentage
Gender Frequency PercentMale 250 70.62Female 105 29.66
Total 355 100
Table 3.1 indicates that majority of the respondents were males. 29.66% were females and
70.62% were male respondents.
Table 3.2: Indicating the age of the respondents in percentage
Age Frequency Percent
Below 35 Years 310 87.57
35-45 Years 37 10.45
46-55 Years 4 1.13
56 and above Years 4 1.13Total 355 100
Table 3.2 indicates that most respondents were in the age group of below 35 years. The
maximum was in the group of below 35 years (87.57%), followed by 35 – 45 years (10.45%),
46 – 55 years (1.13%) and 56 and above years (1.13%).
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Table 3.3: Indicating the educational qualification of the respondents in percentage
Education Frequency PercentGraduate 170 48.02Post Graduate 133 37.57Professional Qualification 48 13.56Others 4 1.13Total 355 100
Table 3.3 indicates that most respondents had bachelors degree in various disciplines. Majority of
the respondents were graduates (48.02%) followed by post graduates (37.57%), professional
qualification (13.56%) and other qualifications like certificate, diplomas and degrees outside the
formal educational structure.
Table 3.4: Indicating the marital status of the respondents in percentage
Marital Status Frequency PercentMarried 165 46.61Single 184 51.98Others 6 1.70Total 355 100
Table 3.4 indicates that majority of the respondents were unmarried. The marital status was that
51.98% were single, followed by married (46.61%) and least were in the others category (1.70%)
i.e. divorcees.
Table 3.5: Indicating the level of management from where respondents were drawn from in percentage
Management Level Frequency PercentEntry Level Management 268 75.71Middle Level Management 29 8.19Senior Level Management 58 16.38Total 355 100
Table 3.5 indicates that most respondents were from the entry level management (75.71%),
followed by senior management (16.38%) and the least were from middle management (8.19%).
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Table 3.6: Indicating the number of years respondents have worked in the present position in percentage
Years in present position Frequency Percent1-2 Years 175 49.432-3Years 92 25.993-4 Years 37 10.454-5 Years 28 7.915 Years and Above 23 6.50Total 355 100
Table 3.6 indicates that most of the respondents were in the position of 1 – 2 years. Majority of
the respondents were on their present position for 1 – 2 years (36.72%) followed by 2 – 3 years
(25.99%), less than one year (12.71%), 3 – 4 years (10.45%), 4 – 5 years (7.91%) and above five
years (6.50%).
Table 3.7: Indicating the total years of work experience of the respondents in percentage
Work-Experience Frequency Percent2years and below 23 6.502-5yrs 163 46.055-10yrs 115 32.4910-15 yrs 35 9.8915-20yrs 13 3.67Above 20 yrs 6 1.69Total 355 100
Table 3.7 indicates that majority of the respondents had 2 – 5 years of work experience. The work
experience of the respondents shows that most respondents had 2 – 5 years (46.05%) experience
followed by 5 – 10 years (32.49%), 10 – 15 years (9.89%), two years and below (6.50%), 15 – 20
years (3.67%) and above 20 years (1.70%).
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Table 3.8: Indicating the size of the organization from where the responses were drawn in percentage
Size of the Organization Frequency PercentLess than 500 Employees 16 4.50500 - 1000 Employees 23 6.50More than 1000 Employees 316 89.00Total 355 100
Table 3.8 indicates that majority of the respondents were from organization with more than 1000
employees (89.00%) followed by (6.50%) of respondents were from organizations with 500 -
1000 employees and (4.50%) were from organizations with less than 500 employees.
3.7 SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
Judgmental sampling technique was adopted to collect the data from the respondents for the
present study. IT employees with a minimum of one year experience were considered to fill the
questionnaire.
3.8 TOOLS ADOPTED FOR DATA COLLECTION
The questionnaire method was adopted to collect the data from the respondents. Further based on
the objectives of the study the following measurement tools were adopted to collect data from the
sample.
1. Measurement of Work – Life Balance
The work – life balance questionnaire was divided into five dimensions
• Dimension 1 - Work interferes with personal life scale was developed by Fisher-McAuley,
Stanton, Jolton and Gavin (2003)
• Dimension 2 – Factors impacting work – life balance scale was developed by the
investigator based on the objectives of the study.
• Dimension 3 - Work related factors that interferes with personal life scale was developed
by Bolino and Turnley (2005)
• Dimension 4 - Level of risk inherent in each program, on an employees career, scale was
developed Catherine C Parker (2007)
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• Dimension 5 – Likelihood of usage of work – life balance programs by an employee scale
was developed Catherine C Parker (2007)
2. Measurement of Emotional Intelligence
The Emotional Intelligence questionnaire has four dimensions and is developed by Wong Chi
Sum (2007)
3.9 DESCRIPTION OF THE TOOLS
3.9.1 Work – Life Balance Questionnaire
For the purpose of this research, the work – life balance section is divided into four parts. The
first scale is the Work Interference with Personal Life (WIPL) scale developed by Fisher-
McAuley, Stanton, Jolton and Gavin (2003), they report the Cronbach alpha for this scale as α = .
87. This scale assesses if the participants currently feel that they had a balance between work and
life. This scale has 7 items and participants respond using a 5 point Likert scale. Item 7 is reverse
scored.
The second scale is developed by the researcher to find out the factors that has got an impact on
work – life balance. This scale has 5 items and participants respond using a 5-point Likert scale.
Items 2 and 3 were reserved scored. To determine its reliability the questionnaire was
administered based to sample of 30 IT employees. Cronbach alpha for this scale was reported at
α = .61.
The third scale determines work related factors interfering with personal life. This scale was
developed by Bolino and Turnley (2005) and contains 15 items. They report that the Cronbach’s
alpha for this scale as α = .91. Participants indicate work related factors interfering with personal
life using a 5 point Likert scale. The researcher modified the questionnaire to suit the present
study.
The fourth scale measures the participants’ usage of work life programs and their view of the
risks inherent in each program. This scale was created by Catherine C Parker (2007) and
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modified by researcher for this research. Items included in the list of work life balance programs
were those mentioned in the literature discussing work life programs (Sullivan & Mainiero, 2007;
Kirby and Krone 2002; Allen, 2001; DeCiera, 2005). For each of 12 programs the participant was
asked to state whether their current employer provides this program; their perception of the risk
involved in using the program; and the likelihood that they would use this program at some point
in their career.
3.9.2 Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire
The Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire developed by Law, Wong and Song (2004) was used
to measure four components of emotional intelligence 1. Appraisal and expression of emotion in
the self (SEA), 2. Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others (OEA), 3. Regulation of
emotion in the self (ROE), and 4. Use of emotion to facilitate performance (UOE). This scale
measures 16 items and the Cronbach’s alpha for each scale was as follows: SEA - α = .89, OEA -
α = .85, ROE - α = .76 and UOE - α = .88.
Table 3.9 INDICATING CRONBACH’S ALPHA RELIABILITY FOR THE TOOLS
ADOPTED ON THE PRESENT SAMPLE
Construct Measure Number of Items
Cronbach’s Value
Work Interference with Personal Life 07 .921Factors impacting work – life balance 05 .634Work related factors interfering with personal life 15 .893Level of risk inherent in each program, on a employees career
12 .801
Likelihood or usage of work – life balance programs by an employee
13 .658
Emotional Intelligence – Overall Reliability 16 .927Appraisal and expression of emotions in the self 04 .733Appraisal and recognition of emotions in others 04 .711Use of emotions to facilitate performance 04 .678Regulation of emotions in the self 04 .800
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3.10 SCORING PROCEDURE
3.10.1 Work – Life Balance questionnaire is divided into four parts.
Part 1 contains 7 statements and scoring was on a five point scale from 1 to 5, i.e. Strongly
Disagree (1), Disagree (2), Neither Agree nor Disagree (3), Agree (4) and Strongly Agree (5) and
was scored according to the key. Item 7 is reverse scored.
Part 2 contains 5 statements and scoring was on a five point scale from 1 to 5, Strongly Disagree
(1), Disagree (2), Neither Agree nor Disagree (3), Agree (4) and Strongly Agree (5) and was
scored according to the key. Item 2 and 3 were reverse scored.
Part 3 contains 15 items and scoring was on a five point scale Never (1), Rarely (2), Sometimes
(3), Frequently (4) and Always (5).
Part 4 is further divided into 3 sections, The first question was included to gather information on
the current work life balance programs being offered by employers and this was measured on a 3
point scale Yes (1), No (2) and Don’t Know (3). The second question was scored on a 5 point
Likert scale None (1), Low (2), Medium (3), High (4) Very High (5). The third question
presented participants with a 5 point Likert scale Very Unlikely (1), Unlikely (2), Neither Likely
nor Unlikely (3), Likely (4), Very Likely – Already have (5) and an additional 6th choice for
programs that they considered not applicable. It also contained an addition item that asked
whether they take all of their allocated vacation time. Questions that were answered as Not
Applicable were scored the same as very unlikely or 1. These questions were therefore scored on
a 5 point scale.
3.10.2 Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire developed by Wong Chi Sum (2007)
For the purpose of measuring Emotional Intelligence, Wong's Emotional Intelligence Scale
(WEIS) is used. WEIS is a self-report EI measure developed for Chinese respondent (Wong
2007). WEIS is a scale based on the four ability dimensions described in the area of Emotional
Intelligence: 1 - Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, 2 - Appraisal and recognition of
emotion in others, 3 - Regulation of emotion in the self, 4 - Use of emotion to facilitate
performance. This scale comprises of 16 statements measured on a 7 point scale Totally Disagree
(1), Disagree (2), Somewhat Disagree (3), Neither Agree nor Disagree (4) Somewhat Agree (5),
Agree (6), Totally Agree (7). The scoring procedure for emotional intelligence is as follows.
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• Self-Emotions Appraisal (SEA) = sum of items 1, 5,9,13
• Others-Emotions Appraisal (OEA) = sum of items 2, 6, 10, 14
• Use of Emotion (UOE) = sum of items 3, 7, 11, 15
• Regulation of Emotion (ROE) = sum of items 4, 8, 12, 16
3.11 PILOT STUDY AND TRY OUT
The pilot study was conducted on a sample of 30 respondents. The pilot study represented 8 IT
organizations and the data was collected from entry level executives, middle level management
and senior level management. The questionnaire was personally administered to the target sample
and they took 15 – 20 minutes to complete the questionnaire. The Cronbach’s alpha for Work
Interference with Personal Life (WIPL) scale was reported at α = .84. The scale developed to
measure factors impacting work – life balance reported Cronbach alpha at α = .61. The scale
developed to measure work related factors interfering with personal life reported Cronbach alpha
at α = .80. The scale developed to measure the level of risk inherent in each program, reported
Cronbach alpha α = .83 and for likelihood of usage of work – life balance programs reported
Cronbach alpha α = .71. For emotional intelligence the Cronbach alpha for each subscale,
1.Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self (SEA) was α = .67, 2. Appraisal and
recognition of emotion in others α = .68 (OEA), 3. Regulation of emotion in the self (ROE) α = .
67, and 4. Use of emotion to facilitate performance (UOE) α = .64.
3.12 ADMINISTRATION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE
The investigator administered the questionnaire personally, online and as a group to the
respondents. The data was collected from 355 IT employees from 31 IT companies in Bangalore
city. The respondents took 15 – 20 minutes to complete the entire questionnaire. The
confidentiality of the responses was assured. After collection of the questionnaires, scores were
assigned and systematically pooled for further analysis.
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3.13 STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES AND ANALYSIS
The following statistical techniques were used for analyzing the data.
1. Descriptive statistics – Frequency, Means, Standard Deviation and Percentages.
2. Canonical correlation analysis between Emotional Intelligence and Work – Life Balance
and for intra correlation analysis within Emotional Intelligence and Work – Life Balance
variables Pearson’s correlation analysis was used.
3. Stepwise regression analysis and
4. Differential statistics (ANOVA) for measuring the differences between demographic
variables.
3.14 CONCLUSION
The methodology adopted is described in this chapter. The data collected from the IT employees
in Bangalore city are analyzed using appropriate techniques for description and inference. The
details of the statistical data analysis are presented in the next chapter.
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CHAPTER – IV
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
4.1 INTRODUCTION
The present chapter is based on the analysis of data and interpretation and discussion of results.
However valid, reliable and adequate the data may be, it does not serve and purpose unless the
data is carefully processed, systematically classified, scientifically analyzed, properly interpreted
and rationally concluded.
After the data had been collected, it was processed tabulated using Microsoft Excel – 2003
Software. The statistical techniques adopted are means, standard deviation, Pearson’s
Correlation, Regression and ANOVA. SPSS version 18.0 statistical software was used and the
results obtained thereby have been analyzed and interpreted. These have been done on Emotional
Intelligence and Work – Life Balance of employees in IT industry. The purpose of the study is to
find out how work interferes with life, factors affecting work – life balance and emotional
intelligence of employees in IT industry. The purpose of the study was also to find out the
relationship and impact between Emotional Intelligence and Work – Life Balance.
The investigator also intends to find out the differences in the demographic variables namely,
gender, age, qualification, marital status, management level, years in present position, overall
work experience and size of the organization.
The analysis of data has been presented in the following order.
1. Descriptive Statistics
2. Differential Statistics (ANOVA)
3. Step – wise Regression on the variables.
4. Canonical correlation between emotional intelligence and work – life balance.
5. Pearson’s correlation analysis for intra correlation within emotional intelligence and work
– life Balance variables.
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4.2 DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
The descriptive statistics describes the normality distribution of the scores for the sample under
investigation.
4.2.1 To identify what aspects of work interferes with personal life
Table 4.1: Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending order for Work Interference with Personal Life
Work Interference with Personal Life Mean Std DeviationI am happy with the amount of time fornon-work activities (reverse scored) 3.02 1.122I miss personal activities because of work 3.01 1.131I put personal life on hold for work 2.95 1.151My personal life suffers because of work 2.80 1.207I neglect personal needs because of work 2.79 1.132I struggle to juggle work and non-work 2.72 1.025My job makes personal life difficult 2.69 1.134
Table 4.1 indicates that IT employees were unhappy with the amount of time they get for their
non-work activities (3.02). Because of the lack of time for non-work activities IT employees go
on to miss personal activities because of the amount of time they dedicate to their professional
life (3.01). IT employees also tend to put their personal life on hold because of work (2.95).
These aspects of work were found to have higher interference with personal life. Where as other
aspects like Personal life suffering because of work (2.80), Neglecting personal needs (2.79),
Juggling i.e. managing both work and non-work activities (2.72) and finally Job i.e. professional
life making personal life difficult (2.69) indicates less interference with personal life.
The level of work interference with personal life varied in the range of 1.00 – 6.00. With one
cluster in the range of 1.50 – 3.00, representing low work interference with personal life, and the
other in the range of 3.00 – 5.00 representing moderate work interference with personal life.
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4.2.2 To identify the factors that impacts work – life balance
Table 4.2: Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending for factors that impacts work – life balance
Factors impacting work – life balance Mean Std DeviationI feel exhausted at the end of days work 3.17 1.092My colleagues have resigned or taken a career break because of work-life balance issues in the last one year 2.96 1.182My boss or company recognise the importance of my personal life (reverse scored) 2.80 1.154Lack of work-life balance has had an adverse impact on my career 2.79 1.078My family supports me of my professional life (reverse scored) 2.08 0.938
Table 4.2 indicates that IT employees get exhausted at the end of days work (3.17). IT employees
also resign their jobs or take a career break because of work-life balance issues (2.96). These
factors of were found to have a higher impact. Whereas Lack of work-life balance having an
adverse impact on career (2.79) and lack of family support in professional life (2.08) was found
to have a lesser impact.
The level of factors impacting work – life balance was moderate, varying in the range of 2.00 –
3.50 peaking near 2.50
4.2.3 To find out work related factors that interferes with personal life
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Table 4.3: Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending order, for work related factors that interferes with personal life
Work Related Factors Interfering with Personal Life Mean Std DeviationCarry a cell phone or pager for work so you can be reached after normal business hours 3.37 1.456Check your e-mail or voice mail from home after returning from work 3.08 1.342Stay at work after normal business hours or work over time 3.03 1.063Rearrange, alter or cancel personal plans because of work 2.92 0.968Take work-related phone calls at home 2.92 1.154Volunteer for special projects in addition to your normal job duties 2.82 1.048Go into the office before normal business hours 2.69 1.031Work on your days off (e.g., weekends) 2.59 0.947Bring things home to work on 2.48 1.506Check back with the office even when you are on vacation 2.46 1.058Work late into the night at home 2.38 1.130Participate in community activities for the benefit of the company or organization 2.35 1.013Attend work-related functions on personal time 2.35 0.940Work during vacations 2.05 1.018Travel whenever the company asks you to, even though technically you don’t have to 1.85 1.011
Table 4.3 indicates that majority of the IT employees carry cell phone or a pager so that they can
be reached after normal business hours (3.37), they also check their e-mail or voice mail from
home after returning from work (3.08), IT employees also Stay at work after normal business
hours i.e. they tend to work overtime (3.03). Further IT employees Rearrange, alter or cancel
personal plans because of work (2.92) and Take work-related phone calls at home (2.92). These
work related factors were found to have a moderate interference or impact on an IT employee’s
personal life. On the other hand Participating in community activities for the benefit of the
company or organization (2.35), Attending work-related functions on personal time (2.35),
Working during vacations (2.05) and Travelling whenever the company asks you to (1.85). These
work related factors were found to have lesser interference or impact on an IT employee’s
personal life.
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4.2.4 To identify work – life balance policies, practices and programs offered by the organizations
Table 4.4: Indicating the difference between awareness and prevalence about the work – life balance programs
Work - Life Balance Programs Awareness Prevalence DifferenceFlexible work schedules 98.87% 70.09% 28.78%Leave of absence for education 78.31% 53.24% 25.07%Part-time work 87.89% 10.26% 77.63%Job sharing 89.58% 46.86% 42.72%Brief (1 - 2 months) paid sabbatical 70.42% 30.80% 39.62%Work from home occasionally 98.59% 65.71% 32.88%Work from home all the time 89.58% 10.69% 78.89%Compressed work week 80.85% 32.06% 48.79%Paid maternity leave 87.04% 93.85% -6.81%Paid paternity leave 79.44% 79.43% 0.01%Paid leave for sick family member (parent, child, spouse) 80.28% 48.42% 31.86%Career breaks 70.70% 20.32% 50.38%
Table 4.4 indicates that the highest difference was noticed in Work from home all the time
(78.89%), followed by part time work (77.63%). The least difference was found in paid leave of
absence for education (25.07%) and paid paternity leave (0.01%). In case of paid maternity leave
the prevalence of it was found to be higher than the awareness of the work – life balance
programs.
95
4.2.5 To find out the level of risk inherent in each program, on a employees career
Table 4.5: Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending order for the level of risk inherent in each program, on a employees career
Work - Life Balance Programs Mean Std DeviationPart-time work 3.90 0.746Work from home all the time 3.83 0.918Career breaks 3.69 0.867Brief (1 – 2 months) paid sabbatical 3.52 0.881Leave of absence for education 3.10 0.862Compressed work week 2.91 0.933Job sharing 2.75 0.921Paid leave for sick family member (parent, child, spouse) 2.53 0.972Flexible work schedules 2.30 0.896Paid paternity leave 2.00 0.0927Work from home occasionally 1.98 0.854Paid maternity leave 1.84 0.852
Table 4.5 indicates that when employees chooses to use the work – life balance programs the
inherent risks associated with it was highest for Part-time work (3.90) followed by Work from
home all the time (3.83), Career breaks (3.69) and a Brief paid sabbatical. Whereas usage of
Flexible work schedules (2.30), Paid paternity leave (2.00), Work from home occasionally (1.98)
and Paid maternity leave (1.84) has less risk involved to an IT employee’s position.
The level of risk involved on an employee’s career with the usage of work – life balance
programs was moderate varying in the range of 2.00 – 4.00, perking near 3.00
96
4.2.6 To find out the likelihood or usage of work – life balance programs by an employee
Table 4.6: Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending order for the likelihood of usage of work – life balance programs by an employee
Work - Life Balance Programs Mean Std DeviationFlexible work schedules 4.05 1.036Work from home occasionally 3.97 1.098Paid leave for sick family member (parent, child, spouse) 3.44 1.124Paid paternity leave 3.43 1.491Use of all earned vacation time 3.33 1.220Job sharing 3.06 1.368Compressed work week 2.90 1.240Leave of absence for education 2.78 1.238Brief (1 – 2 months) paid sabbatical 2.72 1.229Work from home all the time 2.61 1.294Career breaks 2.55 1.302Part-time work 2.31 1.183Paid maternity leave 2.24 1.788
Table 4.6 indicates that of the different work - life balance programs IT employees were more
likely to use programs like Flexible work schedules (4.05), Work from home occasionally (3.97),
Paid leave for sick family member (3.44) and Paid paternity leave. However programs like Work
from home all the time (2.61), Career breaks (2.55), Part-time work (2.31) and Paid maternity
leave (2.24) indicated less likelihood of usage.
The level of likelihood of usage of work – life balance programs was moderate, varying in the
range of 1.50 to 4.00, peaking near 3.00.
97
4.2.7 To find out the Emotional Intelligence of employees
Table 4.7: Indicating the mean and standard deviation in descending order for the dimensions of Emotional Intelligence of IT employees
Emotional Intelligence Dimensions Mean Std Deviation
Emotional Intelligence5.586
8 0.78159
Regulation of emotion in the self5.688
7 0.84786
Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others5.584
5 0.81903
Use of emotion to facilitate performance5.583
8 0.83267
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self5.490
1 0.85654
The level of emotional intelligence of IT employees was found to be moderate to high varying in
the range 3.00 – 7.00 peaking near 5.50.
The level of regulation of emotion in self was found to be moderate to high, varying in the range
3.00 – 7.00, peaking near 6.00.
The level appraisal and recognition of emotion in others was found to be moderate to high,
varying in the range 4.00 – 7.00, peaking near 5.50.
The level of use of emotion to facilitate performance was found to be moderate to high, varying
in the range 4.00 – 7.00, peaking near 5.50.
The level of appraisal and expression of emotion in the self was found to be moderate to high,
varying in the range 4.00 – 7.00, peaking near 5.50.
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4.3 Hypothesis 1: There will be no significant differences across demographics and work life
balance.
Differences in Work – Life Balance and Emotional Intelligence variables were tested across
demographic groups. For this purpose the one-way ANOVA test was used. The results indicate
that null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted as there were
significant differences across demographics and work – life balance.
Table 4.8 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Gender
Work - Life Balance and GenderSum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Work interference with personal life 3.877 1 3.877 4.528 .034*Factors impacting work – life balance 0.018 1 0.018 0.036 .849Work related factors interfering with personal life 18.168 1 18.168 39.628 .000**Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs 0.971 1 0.971 3.964 .047*Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs 0.025 1 0.025 0.077 .781**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there were significant differences in, work interference with personal life, work
related factors interfering with personal life and level of risk to an employee’s position with the
usage of work-life balance programs. Work interference with personal life was higher for men
(2.92) and less for women (2.69). Work related factors interfering with personal life was higher
for men (2.76) and less for women (2.27) and risk to an employee’s position with the usage of
work-life balance programs was also higher for men (2.90) and less for women (2.78). There
were no significant differences found in factors impacting work – life balance and likelihood of
usage of work-life balance programs between men and women IT professionals.
99
Table 4.9 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Age
Work - Life Balance and AgeSum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Work interference with personal life 6.589 3 2.196 2.573 .054Factors impacting work – life balance 2.978 3 0.993 2.071 .104Work related factors interfering withpersonal life 11.641 3 3.880 8.090 .000**Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs 0.645 3 0.215 0.869 .457Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs 0.958 3 0.319 0.978 .403**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there were significant differences in work related factors interfering with
personal life between age groups. Work related factors interfering with personal life were highest
in the age groups of 35 – 45 (3.14), followed by 45 – 55 years (3.00), less than 35 years (2.56)
and least for 55 and above years (2.33). There was no significant difference in work interference
with personal life, factors impacting work – life balance, level of risk to an employee’s position
with the usage of work-life balance programs and likelihood of usage of work-life balance
programs between age groups.
Table 4.10 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Qualification
Work - Life Balance and QualificationSum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Work interference with personal life 0.778 3 0.259 0.298 .827Factors impacting work – life balance 1.515 3 0.505 1.044 .373Work related factors interfering with personal life 2.398 3 0.799 1.580 .194Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs 0.796 3 0.265 1.075 .360Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs 0.523 3 0.174 0.532 .661**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found the there was no significant difference in any of the work – life balance variables
with respect to qualification.
100
Table 4.11 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Marital Status
Work - Life Balance and Marital Status Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Work interference with personal life 1.385 2 0.693 0.800 .450Factors impacting work – life balance 1.032 2 0.516 1.068 .345Work related factors interfering with personal life 6.705 2 3.353 6.810 .001**Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs 0.008 2 0.004 0.016 .984Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs 2.986 2 1.493 4.669 .010****. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that, work related factors interfering with personal life were significantly higher for
married IT professionals (2.77) and less for single or unmarried IT professionals (2.49). Further it
was also found that the likelihood of usage of work - life balance programs were significantly
higher among married IT professionals (3.12) and less among single or unmarried IT
professionals (2.94). There was no significant difference in, work interference with personal life,
factors impacting work – life balance and level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage
of work-life balance programs.
Table 4.12 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Management Level
Work - Life Balance and Management Level
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Work interference with personal life 7.830 2 3.915 4.620 .010**Factors impacting work – life balance 3.481 2 1.740 3.653 .027*Work related factors interfering with personal life 12.680 2 6.340 13.337 .000**Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs 0.345 2 0.172 0.696 .499Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs 0.921 2 0.460 1.414 .245**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there were significant differences among different variables of work – life
balance between professionals at different management levels. Work interference with personal
101
life was highest for IT professionals at the middle management level (3.28), followed by senior
management (2.85) and least for entry level management (2.77). Factors impacting work – life
balance was highest for middle management (2.84), followed by entry level management (2.80)
and least for senior management (2.53). Work related factors interfering with personal life were
highest for IT professionals at the senior management level (3.01), followed by middle
management (2.80) and least for entry level management (2.51). There was no significant
difference in level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance programs
and likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs between IT professionals at different
management levels.
Table 4.13 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Years in present position
Work - Life Balance and Years in present position
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Work interference with personal life 12.333 5 2.467 2.930 .013*Factors impacting work – life balance 0.753 5 0.151 0.309 .908Work related factors interfering with personal life 6.092 5 1.218 2.445 .034*Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs 0.507 5 0.101 0.407 .844Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs 3.585 5 0.717 2.235 .050***. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there were significant differences among different variables of work – life
balance for IT professionals with years in present position. Work interference with personal life
was highest for IT professionals who were in the same position for six years and above (3.24),
followed by 5 years (2.97), 2 years (2.94), 3 years (2.84), 1 year (2.62) and least for 4 years
(2.49). Work related factors interfering with personal life was highest for IT professionals who
were in the same position for six years and above (2.95), followed by 5 years (2.86), 2 – 3 years
(2.60), 4 years (2.54) and least for 1 year (2.43). Likelihood of usage of work-life balance
programs was higher among IT professionals who were in the same position for 4 years (3.26),
followed by six years and above (3.10), 5 years (3.09), 1 year (3.07), 2 years (2.99), and least
among IT professionals who had 3 years of experience (2.92). There was no significant
102
difference found in factors impacting work – life balance and level of risk to an employees
position with the usage of work-life balance programs.
Table 4.14 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Overall work experience
Work - Life Balance and Overall work experience
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Work interference with personal life 19.036 5 3.807 4.628 .000**Factors impacting work – life balance 4.991 5 0.998 2.096 .065Work related factors interfering withpersonal life 23.879 5 4.776 10.675 .000**Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs 1.646 5 0.329 1.340 .247Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs 1.598 5 0.320 0.979 .431**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there were significant differences in, work interference with personal life and
work related factors interfering with personal life with overall work experience. Work
interference with personal life was highest for IT professionals with 15 – 20 years of experience
(3.15), followed by 10 – 15 years (3.13), 5 – 10 years (3.07), 1 – 2 years (2.81), 2 – 5 years (2.64)
and least for IT professionals with 20 years and above work experience. Work related factors
interfering with personal life was highest for IT professionals with 15 – 20 years of experience
(3.20), followed by 10 – 15 years (3.08), 20 years and above (2.73), 5 – 10 years (2.76), 1 – 2
years (2.53) and least for IT professionals with 2 – 5 years of experience (2.38). There was no
significant difference in, factors impacting work – life balance, level of risk to a employees
position with the usage of work-life balance programs and likelihood of usage of work-life
balance programs with overall work experience.
Table 4.15 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Size of the organization
103
Work - Life Balance and Size of the organization
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Work interference with personal life 2.031 2 1.015 1.175 .310Factors impacting work – life balance 4.468 2 2.234 4.716 .010**Work related factors interfering with personal life 0.794 2 0.397 0.78 .459Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs 0.452 2 0.226 0.914 .402Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs 0.377 2 0.189 0.576 .562**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there was significant difference in, factors impacting work – life balance with
size of the organization. Factors impacting work – life balance was highest in organizations with
more than 1000 employees (2.79), followed by organizations with less than 500 employees (2.71)
and least for organizations with 500 – 100 employees (2.33). There was no significant difference
in, work interference with personal life, work related factors interfering with personal life, Level
of risk to an employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs and likelihood of
usage of work-life balance programs with size of the organization.
Table 4.16 Indicating ANOVA for Work – Life Balance and Working hours per week
Work - Life Balance and Working hours per week
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Work interference with personal life 69.139 4 17.285 25.532 .000**Factors impacting work – life balance 12.755 4 3.189 7.026 .000**Work related factors interfering with personal life 44.306 4 11.077 28.490 .000**Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs 1.618 4 0.404 1.648 .162Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs 0.763 4 0.191 0.581 .676**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found the there were significant differences in, work interference with personal life, factors
impacting work – life balance and work related factors interfering with personal life with
working hours per week. Work interference with personal life was highest for IT professionals
104
who worked more than 65 hours per week (3.75), followed by 60 – 65 hours (3.61), 55 – 60
hours (3.54), 50 – 55 hours (3.13) and was least for IT professionals who worked 40 – 45 hours
per week (2.48). Factors impacting work – life balance was highest for IT professionals who
worked more than 65 hours per week (3.40), followed by 55 – 60 hours (3.12), 60 – 65 hours
(2.90), 50 – 55 hours (2.80) and was least for IT professionals who worked 40 – 45 hours per
week (2.61). Work related factors interfering with personal life was highest for IT professionals
with who worked more than 65 hours per week (3.96), followed by 60 – 65 hours (3.33), 55 – 60
hours (3.15), 50 – 55 hours (2.75) and was least for IT professionals who worked 40 – 45 hours
per week (2.34). There was no significant difference in, level of risk to an employee’s position
with the usage of work-life balance programs and likelihood of usage of work-life balance
programs with working hours per week.
4.4 Hypothesis 2: There will be no significant differences across demographics and
appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in
others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and regulation of emotion in the self.
The results indicate that null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted
as there was significant difference across demographics and emotional intelligence.
Table 4.17 Indicating ANOVA for appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal
and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion in the self and gender
Emotional Intelligence and GenderSum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self 0.146 1 0.146 0.198 .656Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others 0.026 1 0.026 0.038 .846Use of emotion to facilitate performance 0.653 1 0.653 0.942 .332Regulation of emotion in the self 0.363 1 0.363 0.505 .478**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
105
It was found that there was no significant difference in appraisal and expression of emotion in the
self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion between men and women IT professionals.
Table 4.18 Indicating ANOVA for appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal
and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion in the self and age
Emotional Intelligence and AgeSum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self 0.532 3 0.177 0.240 .868Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others 1.008 3 0.336 0.499 .683Use of emotion to facilitate performance 2.520 3 0.840 1.214 .305Regulation of emotion in the self 0.273 3 0.091 0.126 .945**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there was no significant difference in appraisal and expression of emotion in the
self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion between IT professionals due to age.
Table 4.19 Indicating ANOVA for appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal
and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion in the self and qualification
Emotional Intelligence and QualificationSum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self 0.866 3 0.289 0.392 .759Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others 2.028 3 0.676 1.008 .389Use of emotion to facilitate performance 0.720 3 0.24 0.344 .793Regulation of emotion in the self 0.961 3 0.320 0.444 .722**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there was no significant difference in appraisal and expression of emotion in the
self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion between IT professionals due to qualification.
106
Table 4.20 Indicating ANOVA for appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal
and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion in the self and marital status
Emotional Intelligence and Marital Status
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self 0.492 2 0.246 0.334 .716Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others 0.351 2 0.175 0.26 .771Use of emotion to facilitate performance 1.162 2 0.581 0.837 .434Regulation of emotion in the self 0.169 2 0.084 0.117 .890**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there was no significant difference in appraisal and expression of emotion in the
self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion between married and single IT professionals.
Table 4.21 Indicating ANOVA for appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal
and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion in the self and management level
Emotional Intelligence and Management Level
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self 0.634 2 0.317 0.431 .650Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others 1.699 2 0.849 1.268 .283Use of emotion to facilitate performance 1.513 2 0.757 1.092 .337Regulation of emotion in the self 1.144 2 0.572 0.795 .453**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there was no significant difference in appraisal and expression of emotion in the
self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion between professionals at different management levels.
Table 4.22 Indicating ANOVA for appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal
and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion in the self and years in present position
107
Emotional Intelligence and Years in present position
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self 1.750 5 0.35 0.474 .796Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others 3.313 5 0.663 0.988 .425Use of emotion to facilitate performance 3.383 5 0.677 0.975 .433Regulation of emotion in the self 0.992 5 0.198 0.273 .928**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there was no significant difference in appraisal and expression of emotion in the
self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion due to years in present position.
Table 4.23 Indicating ANOVA for appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal
and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion in the self and overall work experience
Emotional Intelligence and Overall work experience
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self 4.902 5 0.980 1.343 .246Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others 6.003 5 1.201 1.810 .110Use of emotion to facilitate performance 9.799 5 1.960 2.903 .014*Regulation of emotion in the self 6.201 5 1.240 1.743 .124**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there was significant difference in use of emotions to facilitate performance due
to overall work experience. The level of use of emotions to facilitate performance was highest for
IT professionals with twenty or more years of experience (6.20), followed by 15 – 20 years
(5.96), 10 – 15 years (5.72), 2 – 5 years (5.63), 5 – 10 years (5.45) and was least for IT
professionals with 1 – 2 years of work experience. There was no significant differences found in
appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in others
and regulation of emotion in the self due to overall work experience.
4.24 Indicating ANOVA for appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal and
recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and regulation of
emotion in the self and size of the organization
108
Emotional Intelligence and Size of the organization
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self 0.086 2 0.043 0.058 .944Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others 0.172 2 0.086 0.128 .880Use of emotion to facilitate performance 0.169 2 0.085 0.121 .886Regulation of emotion in the self 0.085 2 0.043 0.059 .943**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there was no significant difference in appraisal and expression of emotion in the
self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion due to size of the organization.
4.25 Indicating ANOVA for appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal and
recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and regulation of
emotion in the self and working hours per week
Emotional Intelligence and Working hours per week
Sum of Squares df
Mean Square F Sig.
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self 3.166 4 0.792 1.078 .367Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others 1.869 4 0.467 0.692 .598Use of emotion to facilitate performance 1.321 4 0.330 0.472 .756Regulation of emotion in the self 3.130 4 0.782 1.087 .363**. Significant at the 0.01 level.*. Significant at the 0.05 level.
It was found that there was no significant difference in appraisal and expression of emotion in the
self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and
regulation of emotion due to working hours per week.
4.5 STEPWISE REGRESSION ANALYSIS
Hypothesis 3: Emotional intelligence of IT employees will not influence work life balance
109
There was significant influence of emotional intelligence on work – life balance dimensions
To analyze the impact of emotional intelligence on work – life balance, step wise multiple
regression was performed. The results indicate that null hypothesis was rejected and the
alternative hypothesis was accepted as emotional intelligence significantly influenced work – life
balance.
Table 4.26 Indicating (coefficients) stepwise multiple regression of emotional intelligence on work interferes with personal life
Model
UnstandardizedCoefficients
B
StandardizedCoefficients
Std Error Beta t Sig
(Constant) 3.241 .359 9.029 .000Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self -.083 .113 -.076 -.736 .462Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others .052 .123 .045 .418 .676Use of emotion to facilitate performance -.112
.125 -.101 -.896 .371
Regulation of emotion in the self .072 .144 .066 .500 .618a. Dependent Variable: Work interferes with personal life
It was found that the four dimensions of emotional intelligence namely, appraisal and expression
of emotion in the self, Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, Use of emotion to
facilitate performance and Regulation of emotion in the self did not significantly impact Work
interferes with personal life.
Table 4.27 Indicating (coefficients) stepwise multiple regression of emotional intelligence on factors impacting work – life balance
110
Model
UnstandardizedCoefficients
B
StandardizedCoefficients
Std Error Beta t Sig
(Constant) 3.159 .267 11.843 .000Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self -.051 .084 -.063 -.610 .542Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others .083 .092 .098 .909 .364Use of emotion to facilitate performance -.205 .093 -.246 -2.205 .028*Regulation of emotion in the self 0.99 .107 .121 .929 .354a. Dependent Variable: Factors impacting work – life balance
It was found that use of emotion to facilitate performance negatively influenced factors impacting
work – life balance. The influence was significant at the .05 level. This variable explains 2% (R
Square = .020) of the variation in the factors impacting work – life balance on respondents.
Table 4.28 Indicating (coefficients) stepwise multiple regression of emotional intelligence on work related factors interfering with personal life
111
Model
UnstandardizedCoefficients
B
StandardizedCoefficients
Std Error Beta t Sig
(Constant) 2.945 .273 10.805 .000Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self -.106 .086 -.127 -1.238 .217Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others .226 .094 .260 2.415 .016*Use of emotion to facilitate performance -.157 .095 -.184 -1.653 .099Regulation of emotion in the self -.022 .109 -.026 -.201 .841a. Dependent Variable: Work related factors interfering with personal life
It was found that appraisal and recognition of emotions in others significantly influenced work
related factors interfering with personal life. The variable explained 3% (R Square = .026) of the
variation in frequency on work related factors interfering with personal life for respondents.
Table 4.29 Indicating (coefficients) stepwise multiple regression of emotional intelligence on Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs
112
Model
UnstandardizedCoefficients
B
StandardizedCoefficients
Std Error Beta t Sig
(Constant) 3.314 .186 17.837 .000Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self -.256 .058 -.441 -4.381 .000*Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others .023 .064 .038 .359 .720Use of emotion to facilitate performance -.066 .065 -.111 -1.020 .308Regulation of emotion in the self .210 .074 .358 2.821 .005*a. Dependent Variable: Level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance programs It was found that appraisal and expression of emotion in the self negatively influenced level of
risk to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance programs. Regulation of
emotion in the self positively influenced level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of
work-life balance programs. The influence was significant at the .05 level. Together these two
variables explained 7% (R Square = .068) of the variation in level of risk to an employee’s
position with the usage of work-life balance programs.
Table 4.30 Indicating (coefficients) stepwise multiple regression of emotional intelligence on Likelihood of usage of work – life balance program by an employee
113
Model
UnstandardizedCoefficients
B
StandardizedCoefficients
Std Error Beta t Sig
(Constant) 3.339 .220 15.175 .000Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self -.082 .069 -.122 -1.179 .239Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others -.016 .076 -.023 -.208 .835Use of emotion to facilitate performance .061 .077 .089 .794 .428Regulation of emotion in the self -.202 .088 -.030 -.203 .818a. Dependent Variable: Likelihood of usage of work – life balance program by an employee
It was found that the four dimensions of emotional intelligence namely, appraisal and expression
of emotion in the self, appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate
performance and regulation of emotion in the self did not significantly impact likelihood of usage
of work – life balance program by an employee.
4.6 CORRELATION ANALYSIS
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Hypothesis 4: There will no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and work life
balance of IT employees
The results indicate that null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted
as there was significant differences between emotional intelligence and work – life balance.
Table 4.31 Indicating Canonical Correlation Analysis between Work – Life Balance and Emotional Intelligence
Work - Life Balance Dimensions – Rotated Dependent Canonical Loadings Canonical
LoadingsWork interference with personal life 0.257Factors impacting work – life balance 0.340Work related factors interfering with personal life 0.362Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs 0.957Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs 0.262
Emotional Intelligence Dimensions – Rotated Independent Canonical Loadings
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self 0.791Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others 0.412Use of emotions to facilitate performance 0.517Regulation of emotion in the self 0.367
Canonical Redundancies for Independent Set: 0.022
Rotated Canonical Correlations: 0.271
Bartlett Test of Residual Correlations
Chi-square df p-value42.920 20 0.002
Canonical correlation was performed on the work-life balance variables (treated as the dependent
set) and the emotional intelligence variables. The results indicate that the emotional intelligence
variables are the independent set (with redundancy index 0.022), while the work-life balance
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variables are the dependent set (with redundancy index 0.019). The canonical correlation
indicates that Level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance
programs (0.957) has a strong correlation with Appraisal and expression of emotion in self
(0.791), Use of emotions to facilitate performance (0.517) and Appraisal and recognition of
emotion in others (0.412). The canonical correlation between these variables was statistically
significant. It was found that the overall rotated canonical correlation between emotional
intelligence’s influence on work – life balance dimensions was 0.271 (p-value = 0.002). Though
the relationship is significant the influence was weak. Appraisal and expression of emotions in
self (0.791) and Use of emotions to facilitate performance (0.517), influenced maximum on work
- life dimensions. Among the work - life dimensions risk in position with usage of work-life
balance programs (0.957) was maximally influenced by emotional intelligence.
Table 4.32 - Indicating Pearson’s intra – correlation matrix between Work – Life Balance dimensions Work - Life Balance Dimensions
Work interference with personal life
Factors impacting work – life balance
Work related factors interfering with personal life
Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs
Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs
Work interference with personal life
1 .597** .641** .222* - 0.015
Factors impacting work – life balance
1 .361** .197** .025
Work related factors interfering with personal life
1 .229* .090*
Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs
1 .060
Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs
1
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.
The intra correlation matrix indicated significant positive correlations between work – life
balance dimensions. Significant positive correlations were found between Work interference with
personal life and Work related factors interfering with personal life (.641**), followed by Work
interference with personal life and Factors impacting work – life balance (.597**). The
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relationships between these variables were moderate. Further significant positive correlations
were found between Factors impacting work – life balance with Work related factors interfering
with personal life (.361**) followed by Work related factors interfering with personal life and
Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs (.229*), Work
interference with personal life and Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-
life balance programs (.222*), Factors impacting work – life balance and Level of risk to a
employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs (.197**) and Work related
factors interfering with personal life with Likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs
(.090*). The relationships between these variables were low.
Table 4.33 - Indicating Pearson’s intra – correlation matrix between Emotional Intelligence dimensions
Emotional Intelligence Dimensions
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self
Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others
Use of emotion to facilitate performance
Regulation of emotion in the self
Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self
1 .799** .780** .840**
Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others
1 .815** .844**
Use of emotion to facilitate performance
1 .864**
Regulation of emotion in the self
1
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.
The intra correlation matrix indicated significant positive correlations between emotional
intelligence dimensions. Use of emotion to facilitate performance has a strong correlation with
Regulation of emotion in the self (.864**), followed by Appraisal and recognition of emotion in
others with Regulation of emotion in the self (.844**), Appraisal and expression of emotion in
the self with Regulation of emotion in the self (.840**), Appraisal and recognition of emotion in
others with Use of emotion to facilitate performance (.815**), Appraisal and expression of
emotion in the self with Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others (.799**) and Appraisal
and expression of emotion in the self with Use of emotion to facilitate performance (.780**).
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In the present chapter the data has been analyzed and interpreted. The following chapter will
include the summary, findings, implications and limitations of the study and conclusion.
CHAPTER – V
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
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5.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter is based on summary and conclusion of the present study. The need for the study,
statement of the problem, variables of the study, sampling techniques, tools of the study,
statistical techniques adopted, major findings of the study, implications, suggestions for further
research and limitations of the study have been presented.
5.2 NEED FOR THE STUDY
The concept of work – life balance is gaining importance across IT organizations. This study
aims at helping IT organizations build more effective policies with respect to of work – life
balance, it also helps the organizations introduce new work – life balance programs and
encourages sharing of best practices across IT organizations. Further the study facilitates to build
organization wide culture, effective use of policies and programs and also better integration
between work and non-work activities. Hence by offering effective policies and encouraging
employees to make use of the available policies and programs the organizations will in turn be
increasing the employee’s level of satisfaction and also commitment towards the organization.
This will help the organization retain its best people or talent, which will subsequently contribute
to cost saving.
In the present day competitive IT world, the concept of emotional intelligence plays a very
crucial role. Research suggests that traditional intelligence i.e. IQ contributes only 20% to an
individuals success where as emotional intelligence i.e. EQ contributes 80% to an individuals
success. This study will help realize the importance and the role emotional intelligence plays in
enhancing individual and teams performance there by improving organizational effectiveness.
Further the study will also help identify how appraisal, expression, recognition, regulation and
use of emotions facilitate performance. The emphasis on work – life balance in relation to
emotional intelligence in IT organizations has not been methodologically researched. The study
in relation to these variables in the context of IT organizations and its implications in India are
not available. Very few studies have been done globally in relation to these variables. The present
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study is a serious attempt to understand and explore in the Indian IT context behavioral variations
and their implications that these variables have on employees. The insight will contribute towards
the basic understanding in IT organizations.
The findings and outcome of this research will be beneficial to the IT organizations in India,
which is a flourishing industry and contributes significantly to the GDP of the country and the
talent pool of the world.
5.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
A Study on Emotional Intelligence in Relation to Work – Life Balance of Employees in
Information Technology Organizations.
5.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To identify what aspects of work interferes with personal life.
2. To identify the factors that impacts work – life balance.
3. To find out work related factors that interferes with personal life.
4. To identify policies, practices and programs offered by IT organizations with respect to
work – life balance.
5. To find out the level of risk inherent in each work – life balance program, on an IT
employee’s career.
6. To find out the likelihood of usage of work – life balance programs IT employees.
7. To find out if there are differences across demographics and work – life balance.
8. To find out if there are differences across demographics and emotional Intelligence.
9. To find out Emotional Intelligence of employees.
10. To find out the relationship and influence between emotional intelligence and work - life
balance.
5.5 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The review of related literature in the area of work – life balance and emotional intelligence
spanned for more than more than five decades and provided the researcher valuable inputs,
perspective, insights and direction in understanding these factors and designing this study. The
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gaps were identified and the researcher has attempted to seriously and systematically undertake
the present investigation.
5.6 VARIABLES OF THE STUDY
• Dependent Variable: Work – Life Balance
• Independent Variable: Emotional Intelligence
• Demographic Variables: Gender, Age, Qualification, Experience, Martial Status and
Management Level, Size of the organization.
5.7 HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY
A total of four hypotheses were tested and stated in the null form for testing in this research.
Descriptive statistics, Canonical Correlation Analysis, Pearson’s correlation analysis multiple
regression and ANOVA was adopted to treat the data and test the hypotheses between work – life
balance and emotional intelligence and demographics.
5.8 TOOLS ADOPTED FOR THE SUTDY
The instruments to collect data were
5.8.1 Measurement of Work – Life Balance
The work – life balance questionnaire was divided into five dimensions
• Dimension 1 - Work interferes with personal life scale was developed by Fisher-McAuley
(2003) and validated by J. Hayman (2005).
• Dimension 2 – Factors impacting work – life balance scale was developed by the
investigator based on the objectives of the study.
• Dimension 3 - Work related factors that interferes with personal life scale was developed
by Bolino and Turnley (2005)
• Dimension 4 - Level of risk inherent in each program, on an employees career, scale was
developed Catherine C Parker (2007)
• Dimension 5 – Likelihood of usage of work – life balance programs by an employee scale
was developed Catherine C Parker (2007)
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5.8.2 Measurement of Emotional Intelligence
The Emotional Intelligence questionnaire has four dimensions and is developed by Wong Chi
Sum (2007).
Demographic information: Self – developed Performa will be used for measuring demographic
variables.
5.9 SAMPLING DESIGN
Judgmental sampling technique was adopted to collect the data from IT employees representing
23 Indian, Indian multinational and multinational IT companies from Bangalore city.
5.10 STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES ADOPTED
The data was analyzed using the following statistical techniques.
1. Canonical correlation analysis
2. Pearson’s correlation
3. Stepwise regression and
4. ANOVA
5.11 MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
5.11.1 GENERAL FINDINGS
1. The three major behaviours of work that interferes with personal life were
unhappiness with the amount of time for non – work activities followed by missing
personal activities due to work and putting personal life on hold because of work.
Other aspects of work like juggling or managing both work and non – work activities
and job i.e. professional life making personal life difficult had less interference with
personal life.
2. The two major factors impacting work – life balance of IT employees are felling
exhausted at the end of days work and quitting their jobs or taking a career break
because of work – life balance issues. Other factors like, lack of work – life balance
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having an adverse impact on an IT employee’s career and lack of family support in
professional life had less impact on work – life balance.
3. The four major work related factor interfering with personal life were, carrying
cell phone or a pager so that the employees can be reached after normal business
hours, followed by checking e-mail or voice mail at home after returning from work,
stay back at office after normal business hours or working overtime, altering or
canceling personal plans because of work. Other work related factors like
participating in community activities for the benefit of the company, attending work-
related functions on personal time, working during vacations and traveling whenever
the company asks you to have less interference with personal life.
4. The highest difference was noticed in Work from home all the time, followed by
part time work. The least difference was found in paid leave of absence for education
and paid paternity leave. In case of paid maternity leave the prevalence of it was
found to be higher than the awareness of the work – life balance programs.
5. Usage of work – life balance programs like part time, work from home all the
time, career breaks and brief paid sabbatical of 1 – 2 months had higher level of risk
involved to an IT employee’s position. Where as flexible work schedules, paid
paternity leave, work from home occasionally and paid maternity leave had less risk
involved to an IT employee’s position.
6. IT employees were more likely to use work – life balance programs like flexible
work schedules followed by work from home occasionally, paid leave for sick family
member i.e. (parent, child, spouse) and paid paternity leave. Where they were less
likely to use programs like, work from home all the time, career breaks, part-time
work and paid maternity leave.
7. It was found that IT employees were high on regulation of emotion in the self,
followed by appraisal and recognition of emotion in others, use of emotion to
facilitate performance and appraisal and expression of emotion in the self.
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5.11.2 HYPOTHESES RELATED FINDINGS
1. It was found that Level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of work-
life balance programs has a strong correlation with Appraisal and expression of
emotion in self, Use of emotions to facilitate performance and Appraisal and
recognition of emotion in others. The relationship between emotional intelligence’s
influence on work – life balance dimensions was significant however the influence
was weak. Appraisal and expression of emotions in self, and Use of emotions to
facilitate performance influenced maximum on work - life dimensions. Among the
work - life dimensions risk in position with usage of work-life balance programs was
maximally influenced by emotional intelligence.
2. The intra correlation matrix between work – life Balance dimensions indicated
that there was significant positive correlation between, work interference with
personal life with work related factors interfering with personal life and work
interference with personal life with factors impacting work – life balance. The
relationships between these variables were moderate. Further the intra correlation
matrix between work – life Balance dimensions indicate that there was significant
positive correlation between, work related factors interfering with personal life with
level of risk to an employees position with the usage of work-life balance programs
and work interference with personal life with level of risk to an employees position
with the usage of work-life balance programs and factors impacting work – life
balance with Level of risk to a employees position with the usage of work-life balance
programs and work related factors interfering with personal life with likelihood of
usage of work-life balance programs. The relationships between these variables were
low.
3. The intra correlation matrix between emotional intelligence dimensions indicated
that there were significant positive relationships between, use of emotion to facilitate
performance with regulation of emotion in the self, appraisal and recognition of
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emotion in others with regulation of emotion in the self, appraisal and expression of
emotion in the self with regulation of emotion in the self, appraisal and recognition of
emotion in others with use of emotion to facilitate performance, appraisal and
expression of emotion in the self with appraisal and recognition of emotion in others
and appraisal and expression of emotion in the self with use of emotion to facilitate
performance.
4. Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal and recognition of
emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and regulation of emotion
in the self did not significantly influence work interferes with personal life.
5. Use of emotions to facilitate performance negatively influenced factors impacting
work – life balance.
6. Appraisal and recognition of emotion in others had a significant influence on work
related factors interfering with personal life. Where as appraisal and expression of
emotion in the self, use of emotion to facilitate performance and regulation of emotion
in the self did not significantly influence work related factors interfering with personal
life.
7. Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self negatively influenced level of risk
to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance programs. Regulation of
emotion in the self positively influenced level of risk to an employee’s position with
the usage of work-life balance programs.
8. Appraisal and expression of emotion in the self, appraisal and recognition of
emotion in others, use of emotion to facilitate performance and regulation of emotion
in the self did not significantly influence likelihood of usage of work – life balance
program by an employee.
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9. Significant differences were found between gender and work interference with
personal life, work related factors interfering with personal life and level of risk to an
employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance programs. All the three
variables were higher for men as compared to women.
10. No significant differences were found between gender and factors impacting work
– life balance and likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs between men and
women IT professionals.
11. Significant differences were found between age and work related factors
interfering with personal life. Work related factors interfering with personal life were
highest for the 35 – 45 years age group, followed by the 45 – 55 years age group and
was lowest for employees above 55 years.
12. No significant differences were found between age and work interference with
personal life, factors impacting work – life balance, level of risk to an employee’s
position with the usage of work-life balance programs and likelihood of usage of
work-life balance programs.
13. No significant differences were found between qualification and work interference
with personal life, factors impacting work – life balance, work related factors
interfering with personal life, level of risk to a employees position with the usage of
work-life balance programs, likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs.
14. Significant differences were found between martial status and work related factors
interfering with personal life and likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs.
Work related factors interfering with personal life were higher for married IT
professionals as compared to single or unmarried IT professionals. Further married IT
professionals were more likely to use work - life balance programs as compared to
single or unmarried IT professionals.
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15. No significant differences were found between martial status and work
interference with personal life, factors impacting work – life balance and level of risk
to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance programs.
16. Significant differences were found between management level and work
interference with personal life, factors impacting work – life balance and work related
factors interfering with personal life. Work interference with personal life was highest
for IT professionals at the middle management level and lowest for junior level
management. Factors impacting work – life balance was highest for both junior and
middle management IT professionals and lowest for senior management IT
professionals. Finally work related factors interfering with personal life were highest
for senior management IT professionals and lowest for junior level management IT
professionals.
17. No significant differences were found between management level and level of risk
to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance programs and
likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs.
18. Significant differences were found between years in present position and work
interference with personal life, work related factors interfering with personal life and
likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs. Work interference with personal
life and Work related factors interfering with personal life were highest for IT
professionals who were in the same position for six and more years. IT professionals
who were in the same position for about four years were more likely to use work-life
balance programs.
19. No significant differences were found between years in present position factors
impacting work – life balance and level of risk to an employee’s position with the
usage of work-life balance programs.
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20. Significant differences were found between overall experience and work
interference with personal life and work related factors interfering with personal life.
Both the variables were highest for IT professionals with 10 – 20 years of overall
experience and lowest for IT professional 2 – 5 of overall experience.
21. No significant differences were found between overall experience and factors
impacting work – life balance, level of risk to an employee’s position with the usage
of work-life balance programs and likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs.
22. Significant difference was found between size of the organization and factors
impacting work – life balance. Factors impacting work – life balance was highest for
IT professionals working in organizations with more than 1,000 employees and lowest
for professionals working in organizations with 500 – 1000 employees.
23. No significant differences were found between size of the organization and work
interference with personal life, work related factors interfering with personal life, level
of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance programs and
likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs.
24. Significant difference was found between working hours per week and work
interference with personal life, factors impacting work – life balance and work related
factors interfering with personal life. The above three variable were highest for IT
professional who worked for more than 65 hours per week and less for those who
worked 40 – 50 hours a week.
25. No significant differences were found between working hours per week and level
of risk to an employee’s position with the usage of work-life balance programs and
likelihood of usage of work-life balance programs.
26. No significant differences were found between gender and emotional intelligence.
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27. No significant differences were found between age and emotional intelligence.
28. No significant differences were found between qualification and emotional
intelligence.
29. No significant differences were found between marital status and emotional
intelligence.
30. No significant differences were found between management level and emotional
intelligence.
31. No significant differences were found between years in present position and
emotional intelligence.
5.12 IMPLICATIONS
The correlation analysis of data reveals that there was significant positive relation between
emotional intelligence and work – life balance.
1. IT organizations should take up the initiative of improving and enhancing the emotional
intelligence of their employees. This can be done by designing and providing effective
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training to their employees. This will help enhance the skills of the employees with regard
to “self – awareness” self – awareness forms the most critical element of emotional
intelligence. High self – awareness helps an individual to monitor the actions and try to
rectify it if required, self awareness guides an individual to fine tune the job performance
style and become more acceptable and socially networked. Further it also helps
employees, use their emotions to facilitate performance by directing them toward
constructive activities and improving personal performance. Any person highly capable in
this dimension would be able to encourage him or herself to do better continuously and
direct his or her emotions in positive and productive directions. Hence emotional
intelligence will help an employee experience better work – life balance.
2. Appraisal and recognition of emotions in others significantly influenced work related
factors interfering with personal life. Appraisal and recognition of emotions relates to an
individual’s ability to perceive and understand the emotions of the people around them.
People who rate highly in this ability will be very sensitive to the emotions of others as
well as able to predict others’ emotional responses. In the present the IT organizations
where team based performance oriented work environment is more welcome, an open,
trusting and nurturing relationship between the seniors management and junior
management is more likely to succeed in achieving its goals. It not only helps in
enhancing loyalty and satisfaction, but also helps to perform better. Recognition of
emotions in others is important for those in the people management role. Hence it is
recommended that IT organizations recruit employees who possess this quality of
emotional intelligence. Such people spend more time on enhancing the performance of
their team members by providing proper feedback and offering guidelines for
improvement. Managers with such quality devote their time in understanding their
employees with empathy. This will further boost the team’s performance, improve
organizational commitment, retain talented employees, build a positive and healthy
working environment and last but the least minimize work – family conflict.
3. The results of the one way ANOVA reveal that work related factors interfering with
personal life and risk in position with the usage of work life balance is more for men than
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women IT employees. There is a wrong perception that work – life balance programs is
meant only for women and not for men. . Employees using such programs are seen as less
committed to their work and organization. Life becomes more understanding and
meaningful only when, both men and women share family responsibilities equally. When
a person enjoys a healthy personal life and when his personal life is filled with joy and
happiness and free from conflicts, employees will be in a better position to concentrate in
their professional life. They will be able to perform better, their productivity and quality
of work will improve and they will be more loyal to their organizations. Hence it is
recommended that managers and organizations should not discourage employees from
using the work – life balance programs. Organizations should encourage employees to
make use of the available work – life balance programs and remove the fear that usage of
work – life balance programs will have a negative impact on an employee’s career.
4. Work related factors interfering with personal life was the highest for the 35 – 45 years
age group followed by the 45 – 55 years age group. This group usually involves people in
the middle management or the senior management positions. In order to help them
improve their work – life balance it is recommended that people at the middle and senior
management delegate work to their subordinates with confidence. This will provide more
personal time to people at the 35 – 55 years age and also by delegating and distributing
the work equally among their subordinates, will help them learn new skills and gain better
knowledge regarding the next position in the hierarchy that they will be working in the
future. This will help the IT organizations save training costs that they invest in enhancing
the skills of the new managers as they would have already gained the knowledge through
practical experience. This will further help budding manager’s mange their teams
effectively and efficiently contributing to improved employees satisfaction and improved
organizational performance.
5. Work related factors interfering with personal life was highest for married IT
professionals than single IT professionals. It is suggested that IT organizations should
offer employee assistance programs (EAP’S), where employees can seek expert advice
for a better well being and enjoy a happy personal life. Further IT organizations should
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also come up with better employee engagement activities and better family friendly
programs. These initiatives will create a feeling in the employees that the organization
cares and supports for the employees well being. This will also increase the emotional
attachment of the employees towards their organization.
6. IT organizations should clearly define the roles and responsibilities for each every
employee so that there is a clear objective laid down by the organization as to who is
accountable for what and no does extra work. By doing this IT organizations will help
improve the work - life balance across management levels.
7. Lack of work - life balance was more for employees who were in the same position for six
years and more. It is recommended that IT organizations change the profile of their
employees by providing them lateral movements every four years. This will reduce the
monotonous job that employees do by providing change in profile. Employees will find
new profile interesting and challenging and this will bring out the best in every employee.
Further employees also gain knowledge about different profiles. This strategy will help
the employees love their job and experience better work – life balance.
8. IT organizations can improve the work – life balance of their employees by encouraging
the concept of job sharing.
9. The level of use of emotions to facilitate performance generally increased with overall
experience and was the highest for IT professionals with twenty years or more experience.
Use of emotions to facilitate performance is considered to be the most important
dimension of emotional intelligence. It relates to the ability of a person to make use of his
or her emotions by directing them toward constructive activities and personal
performance. A person who is highly capable in this dimension would be able to
encourage him- or herself to do better continuously. He or she would also be able to direct
his or her emotions in positive and productive directions. IT is recommended that IT
organizations take initiatives to improve the emotional intelligence level of their
employees as soon as they become part of the organization, instead of the employees
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improving their emotional intelligence level through gaining experience which takes a
long time. IT organizations should invest on improving the emotional intelligence of their
employees at the very initial stage. This will help build better and efficient managers and
leaders for the future.
10. There should be a clear boundary drawn between work and non – work activities. Human
Resources and the Senior Management should take the initiative and communicate the
importance of having a good balance between personal and professional life. the
widespread perception that visibility = productivity should be changed. Focus on
effectiveness rather than on length of work hours. Use communication technologies and
skilful time-management strategies to boost output.
11. Ensure that formal policies in place are consistent with what employees actually
experience. Policy provision alone is not sufficient to ensure employees’ work/life
balance. Human resource department should Look at the uptake rates of policies across
different areas in the organisation because this may provide clues to the existence of
unsupportive cultures.
12. Human resource department should provide information and assistance to managers and
supervisors about how to promote flexibility and work/life balance. This might include
education about the link between work/life balance and productive employees; a detailed
examination of how the jobs of their employees are designed; and how they can use
information technology to facilitate appropriate remote supervision.
13. Adopt a ‘give and take’ philosophy. Both employer and employee need to be willing to
bend a little.
5.13 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The study has the following limitations
1. The sample was limited to IT organizations in Bangalore city.
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2. The study was conducted under the assumption that the information given by the
respondents will be authentic.
3. The outcome of the study cannot be generalized as the data will be collected only from a
section of employees and not from all the employees
4. The study is chiefly concentrated only on the IT sectors. Hence it becomes difficult to
judge the importance of Work-life balance and Emotional Intelligence across other
industries.
5. Time factor was a major challenge.
5.14 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
1. A comparative study between work – life balance and organizational commitment can be
undertaken.
2. A comparative study between emotional intelligence and ethics at the workplace may be
undertaken.
3. This study can also be done exclusively by taking into consideration only the managers
and the leadership team of the IT organizations.
4. A comparative study between work – life balance, emotional intelligence and job
satisfaction can be undertaken.
5. As the study was conducted in IT sectors in the IT sector other sectors need to be studied
to compare and contrast the results so that the generalizability of the findings can be
increased.
6. Other human resource management and organizational behaviour variables can be
investigated as Dependent variable.
7. A comparative study between organizational citizenship behaviour and emotional
intelligence can be undertaken.
8. This study can be replicated between Indian IT MNC’s and foreign MNC to understand
the differences in findings, especially when it comes to formulation and implementation
of work – life balance policies. This can be done though sharing of best practices.
5.15 CONCLUSION
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Work – Life Balance of IT employees in an issue that has attracted the interest of researchers,
educationists and the leaders of the IT world. Managing both professional and personal life
effectively and efficiently has become a major challenge for the IT employees. IT organizations
need to make efforts to develop effective work – life balance policies and encourage their
employees to make use of the available policies. This will help increase organizational
commitment, improve productivity, efficiency, retain best talent and motivate the IT employees
to give their best. This study confirms that both emotional intelligence and work – life balance
together create organizational success and develop competitive advantage for IT organizations.
Thus the human resources team and the leadership team of IT organizations should take the
initiative of enhancing and improving the emotional intelligence skills of their employees.
Improved emotional intelligence skills will help an individual understand and manage the
emotions of oneself and others better which will lead to high quality service delivery. It is
therefore imperative for IT administrators to strive to create a bridge between emotional
intelligence and work – life balance in IT organizations. Emotional intelligence is an effective
way to integrate, enhance and provide better work and family life. Understanding the potential
and the talent that their employees bring in and ensure the articulation of difference that
employees bring to the work place and value them to make it a part of the organizational success.
IT leaders should focus on developing, formulating and implementing, better work – life balance
policies in order to build a sustainable and enriching organization. Nurturing emotional
intelligence and to make employees feel values must be adopted by IT leaders.
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APPENDIX A
PROFORMA
Christ University Institute of ManagementBangalore – 560029
Dear Respondent,
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I am working on a dissertation titled “Emotional Intelligence in relation to Work – Life Balance of Employees in IT Industry” in partial fulfillment of my M.Phil (Management) course.
Your cooperation in completing the questionnaire will make the results of this study more useful and beneficial in understanding the complex dynamics of the variables under study.
All information collected is for research purpose and will be kept confidential. I request you to kindly spare your valuable time and fill in the questionnaire candidly.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Regards,
Deepak.D.Rangreji Research Scholar
1. Gender: Male Female
2. Age: Below 35 yrs 35-45 46-55 56 and Above yrs
3. Qualification : Graduate Post Graduate Professional Qualification
Others specify
4. Marital Status: Married Single Others
5. Position/Designation: (Please Specify): …………………………………………………….
6. How long have you been in this position: < 1 Year 1-2 Years 2-3Years
3-4 Years 4-5 Years 5 Years and Above
7. Work Experience: 2years and below 2-5yrs 5-10yrs 10-15 yrs
15-20yrs above 20 yrs
8. Size of the Organization: Less than 500 employees 500-1000 Employees
More than 1000 Employees
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APPENDIX – B
QUESTIONNAIRE FOR WORK – LIFE BALANCE
Section A
Instructions: Kindly read the items carefully and Tick in the appropriate box, regarding your view about Work-Life Balance. Please do not omit any item.
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1. How many hours do you work in a week?
40 – 50 51 55 56 – 60 61 – 65 66 and above
Part 1 - Tick the answer that best describes how much you agree with each statement below
Kindly tick in the appropriate BoxS
trongly
Disagree
Disagree
Neith
er A
gree nor D
isagree
Agree
Stron
gly A
gree
1 2 3 4 5
1 My personal life suffers because of work.
2 My job makes personal life difficult
3 I neglect personal needs because of work
4 I put personal life on hold for work
5 I miss personal activities because of work
6 I struggle to juggle work and non-work.
7 I am happy with the amount of time for non-work activities
Part 2 - Tick the answer that best describes how much you agree with each statement below
Kindly tick in the appropriate Box
Stron
gly D
isagree
Disagree
Neith
er A
gree nor
Disagree
Agree
Stron
gly A
gree
1 2 3 4 5
1 I feel exhausted at the end of days work2 My family supports me in my professional life3 My boss or company recognise the importance of
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my personal life
4 Lack of work-life balance has had an adverse impact on my career
5 My colleagues have resigned or taken a career break because of work-life balance issues in the last one year
Part 3 - Tick the answer that best describes how often you do the following activities
Kindly tick in the appropriate BoxNever Rarely Sometimes Frequently Always
1 2 3 4 5
1 Work on your days off (e.g., weekends)
2 Bring things home to work on3 Take work-related phone calls at
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home4 Carry a cell phone or pager for work
so you can be reached after normal business hours
5 Check your e-mail or voice mail from home after returning from work
6 Stay at work after normal business hours or work over time
7 Work late into the night at home8 Attend work-related functions on
personal time9 Travel whenever the company asks
you to, even though technically you don’t have to
10
Work during vacations
11
Go into the office before normal business hours
12
Volunteer for special projects in addition to your normal job duties
13
Rearrange, alter or cancel personal plans because of work
14
Check back with the office even when you are on vacation
15
Participate in community activities for the benefit of the company or organization
.
Parts – 4 – Instructions - Please answer the following questions for each work life balance
program. This part is divided into three sections or halves. Request you to respond to all the
three sections. The third section is continued in the next page.
1) Does your current company offer this program
2) What is the level of risk to a person’s position if they use this program (e.g. stalled career, overlooked for rewards,
147
seen as less committed, etc.)
Kindly tick in the appropriate Box
Yes No Don’t Know
None Low Medium High Very High
1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5
1 Flexible work schedules
2Leave of absence for education
3 Part-time work
4 Job sharing
5 Brief (1 – 2 months) paid sabbatical
6 Work from home occasionally
7 Work from home all the time
8 Compressed work week
9 Paid maternity leave
10 Paid paternity leave
11 Paid leave for sick family member (parent, child, spouse)
12 Career breaks
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3) How likely are you to use these programs at some point in your career? If you have already used or are using this type of program choose “Very likely – Already have”
Very Unlikely
Unlikely Neither Likely
nor Unlikely
Likely Very Likely – Already
have
Not Applicable
1 2 3 4 5 61 Flexible work schedules2 Leave of absence for education3 Part-time work4 Job sharing5 Brief (1 – 2 months) paid
sabbatical6 Work from home occasionally7 Work from home all the time8 Compressed work week9 Paid maternity leave
10 Paid paternity leave11 Use of all earned vacation time12 Paid leave for sick family
member (parent, child, spouse)
13 Career breaks
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APPENDIX – C
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE QUESTIONNAIRE
Section – B
Instructions: Kindly read the items carefully and Tick in the appropriate box, regarding your view about Emotional Intelligence. Please do not omit any item.
Please indicate the extent of your agreement or disagreement with each statement by selecting a number from 1 to 7.
Kindly tick in the appropriate Box
Totally D
isagree
Disagree
Som
e wh
at D
isagree
Neith
er Agree
Nor D
isagree
Som
ewh
at Agree
Agree
Totally A
gree
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1I have a good sense of why I have certain feelings most of the time.
2 I have good understanding of my own emotions3 I really understand what I feel.4 I always know whether or not I am happy.5 I always know my friends emotions from their
behavior.6 I am a good observer of others’ emotions.7 I am sensitive to the feelings and emotions of others. 8 I have good understanding of the emotions of people
around me. 9 I always set goals for myself and then try my best to
achieve them.10 I always tell myself I am a competent person.11 I am a self-motivating person.12 I would always encourage myself to try my best.13 I am able to control my temper so that I can handle
150
difficulties rationally.14 I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions.15 I can always calm down quickly when I am very angry.16 I have good control of my own.
151